Steve Reed admits sharp rise needed to hit 1.5m housing target
Housing Minister Steve Reed has admitted there will need to be a sharp increase in housebuilding to meet Labour’s pledge to build 1.5 million new homes.
The government is now forecast to narrowly miss its target, with the number of new homes opening falling from 207,000 to 139,000 since Labor took office – the lowest level since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Reed says he expects government to ‘just hit’ target planning of reforms Hold, including new targets and some buildings on old green belt land.
To talk BBC Radio 4’s new Housing Britain Reed said ministers were “using every lever” to achieve the target by 2029, when the next general election is expected.
Reed, who took over the housing project from Angela Rayner three months ago, said the government “always” expected the big increase to come from the second part of this parliament.
“I’ve heard it described as a hockey stick, because there’s a relatively gentle rise until it launches towards the end,” he said.
Reed insisted the government was “introducing major changes” to boost housebuilding, such as the Planning and Infrastructure Bill currently in its final stages in Parliament, which he said would “significantly accelerate” decision-making.
A big part of the plan is to make it easier to approve homes near public transit, which Reed claims alone could be “worth a million” homes.
Earlier this month, The government also announced its plans changing the home-buying system to speed up sales and save first-time homebuyers money.
The government’s spending watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), estimates that 1.49 million net additional homes will be built during Labor’s time in office; This figure is 10,000 below the government’s target.
The OBR says the supply of new homes will fall to 215,000 next year but predicts net additions will rise sharply to 305,000 in 2029-30, before the next general election.
Just before last week’s budget, the Home Builders Federation (HBF) warned the government must go further to meet its target.
The organisation, which says its members are responsible for building 80 per cent of new homes in England and Wales, opposed the landfill tax increase, which it said added £14,000 to each build, while saying more help was needed for first-time home buyers.
Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook told BBC Radio 4’s Housing Britain that the government had deliberately chosen an “ambitious” housing target.
Speaking to i Paper’s housing correspondent Vicky Spratt, who presents the four-part series, he said “anything less than that would be seen as undemanding in the context of the housing crisis we face.”
He argued that the figure of 1.5 million new homes “is a sufficiently compelling target to prepare and mobilize the sector”.
Despite the lofty target, he argued Labor would deliver a “high and sustainable” construction rate rather than a short-term “sugar rush”.
Pennycook said ministers would end their reliance on big developers and put councils “seriously back in the game” as well as small and medium-sized builders.
