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The UK government’s plans to build 1.5 million new homes across England in the next five years have been labelled as “unrealistic” and “impossible to achieve” by local councils, according to a consultation by Angela Rayner’s housing department. The vast majority of councils that responded to the questionnaire expressed concern over the issue, potentially setting local authorities against Labour’s key priority. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has made housebuilding central to tackling the housing crisis and heralding economic growth. However, the projected plan depends on local authorities adopting targets for new privately-built housing.
Most councils support the need for more new homes, but many are sceptical that the targets set by the UK government are realistic or achievable. In some cases, targets are radically different from those set by the previous government. Many have voiced concerns that the algorithm used to calculate the targets has not taken account of infrastructure strains, land shortages, planning system capacity and a lack of construction industry capacity. “What we’re being asked to do is very challenging, if not impossible to achieve”, said George Derbyshire, the Labour leader of Broxtowe council in Nottinghamshire.
The Labour government, however, claims that locking in targets based on projections made in 2014 has led to targets that would not solve the country’s current housing crisis nor provide significant economic growth, with the need for new homes based on the current number of houses in an area. This change in methodology has led some local authorities to suggest the new targets may be off-mark and will not take into account local housing needs, as some authorities warned that the plans were unrealistic and would swamp their infrastructure.
Moving forward, the government has said it will respond to the consultation and publish revisions before the end of the year. Although labour has warned it is willing to overrule local councils’ objections to achieve its aim of delivering 1.5 million homes by 2029, underlining the importance it places on housebuilding for economic growth. Meanwhile, the Local Government Association has urged the government to “give councils the tools we need to help build these much-needed new homes
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