Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook has failed to convince the Commons’ Committee for Housing Communities & Local Government that his plans to deliver 1.5 million new homes during this Parliament can be realised.

He was repeatedly questioned on his targets and how he would measure progress, revealing that the Government would not be setting itself yearly or even any interim housebuilding targets. Nor was he willing to say how many of the new homes would be for social rent.

More difficult

Pennycook nevertheless insisted that: “I’m confident we can hit that target by the end of the five years of Parliament,” but admitted it would be “more difficult than he thought in Opposition” and that it is a “stretching target” thanks to the Tories’ legacy.

Pennycook said he was very pleased, on the other hand, with the way the reintroduced mandatory housing targets for local authorities are going: “I’ve got to say, since we’ve published our increased proposed targets, how many councils that have been dragging their heels are now suddenly making very quick progress on local plan coverage.”

And when he was quizzed on why he could set targets for some but not others, he claimed that targets in the past had been “too politicised”.

Unblocking planning

What he did reveal was that he is setting a lot of store in unblocking the planning process, which he says will accelerate the whole building process.

He also talked extensively about tackling the construction labour shortages through training and diversity programmes but was accused by Tory MP Lewis Cocking of having no plan to deal with land banking.

So far, though, progress has not met expectations. Angela Rayner has had to admit that housebuilding will drop below 200,000 for the first year, which is 100,000 below what is needed, although Pennycook countered this by reminding the committee that Labour had only been in power for four months and their plans had yet to come on-stream.