Responding to a question around the government’s new homes target, Lord Gascoigne said: “Our ambition of delivering 300,000 homes a year remains. This has always been a stretching ambition, yet there has been strong progress.
“The four highest rates of annual supply in over 30 years have all been since 2018, including 234,400 homes delivered in 2022-23. Increasing supply further is more difficult due to the economic challenges that we face, and we continue to engage with Homes England, developers and registered providers to understand their delivery charges.”
This contradicts findings from 2022 that the government was backtracking on housebuilding targets.
Lord Young of Cookham said that the government changing the local authorities’ building targets from mandatory to advisory was a “mistake” and that since the change over Christmas, 58 local authorities have scrapped or suspended local plans, with a “view to submitting new plans with lower figures for housing”.
Young asked what action the government was taking to ensure that local authorities do not succumb to “anti-development pressure”.
Gascoigne added that the revised rules “do not allow evasion to build”.
“Local authorities have to make provision for housing and identify sites to deliver homes, and the Levelling up and Regeneration Act makes it clear that this is a plan-led system. That is exactly why we have recently taken intervention against seven local authorities and will consider using these powers for others that are not making sufficient progress,” he noted.
Gascoigne said that it had a “long-term plan” to build new homes, especially with regards to affordable and social housing.
He continued: “We have a long-term plan, but it is not that alone but ensuring that there is funding behind it and that we unlock land, put infrastructure in and try to do all we can to support not just first-time buyers but those who may have lower incomes.”
