Government’s 1.5 million homes plan in chaos as MPs demand answers
The Government's flagship pledge to build 1.5 million homes is in serious trouble, with a damning parliamentary report published warning that continued delays "risk jeopardising the Ministry's headline policy objective."
In an extraordinary rebuke, the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has demanded ministers either publish detailed new homes plans immediately or make a statement to Parliament admitting they don’t know how many will actually be built.
The Government promised a long-term housing strategy when it came to power in July 2024, promising it would be published “in the coming months.” More than 15 months later, there is still no sign of it.
Government unwilling to engage
The Committee says that it was “deeply disappointed that the Government has been unwilling to engage with us on the development of the Strategy or provide any updates on its delayed publication.”
And that “the continuing lack of a cohesive plan to deliver 1.5 million new homes has left the sector in the dark.”
going backwards
It also added that, far from accelerating housebuilding, the numbers show building has been going backwards. Housing starts decreased in every region except the South East, where they flatlined and in London, where they crashed by 73% year-on-year.
And representatives from the housing sector told MPs the target is “challenging and probably unlikely to be met in those five years.”
Then, just as the Committee finalised its report, news broke of emergency talks to slash London’s affordable housing target from 35% to 20%, which the Committee warned would cause “inflated land values” and “slow down delivery”
Government must immediately bring forward its Long-Term Housing Strategy without further delay”
The promised New Towns programme fares no better. Despite announcing 12 potential sites in September, the report notes that no funding has been provided, no development corporations established, and no land purchased. The Committee said the plan to get “spades in the ground on at least three new towns does not match the scale of the Government’s housebuilding ambition.”
The Committee concludes the Government “must immediately bring forward its Long-Term Housing Strategy without further delay” with a detailed breakdown of how each policy will contribute to the 1.5 million target.
You can read the full report here.
