Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has insisted the government's target to build 1.5 million new homes by the end of the current parliament is still achievable, despite rising costs and other challenges.
Speaking before the Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee on Wednesday, Ms Rayner rejected suggestions that the flagship target would not be met within the timeframe.
She told the committee: "I do not accept that I need to readdress that target. I know it's a challenge. I know that people will come to me at the end of this Parliament and will say 'You haven't met that target' if I don't meet it and I'm determined to do everything I possibly can."
National housing delivery board
Next week, Ms Rayner will convene the first national housing delivery board, bringing together the country's biggest housebuilders, councils and housing chiefs to push for a "new wave" of homes to "turn the tide" on the crisis.
The board's purpose is to examine where building standards, regulations and the planning system are slowing down efforts to build.
Highlighting the meeting as an important step, the Housing Secretary said she was "realistic about the challenges we face" but refused to "admit defeat" on the target.
Challenges and progress
Referring to her two terms as Housing Secretary as "album one" and "album two", Ms Rayner said: "In album one, the situation when we created the target of 1.5 million homes, the media were particularly saying that it's impossible, we can't do it. So we knew it was a difficult target then.
"Since then, in album two, since I returned we've obviously got the war in the Middle East that has increased costs. Construction costs have gone up by 40%. The cost of living is having an effect on people's finances, so there has been challenges in terms of meeting that target."
Ms Rayner highlighted that 437,000 homes had been built since the general election, with building starts up by 20% on last year.
She added: "We always knew the changes would take time to come in: the biggest wave of social and affordable housing, the investment we've put in, which is 40 billion, and the changes to national planning policy framework and the housing bills we've got going through Parliament – all our measures in which we're trying to ensure that the delivery ramps up and is sustainable going on beyond this Parliament into the next."
Council tax and local government funding
When questioned on council tax reforms, Ms Rayner said she was not working on any plans to change the council tax system beyond what has already been announced. Her predecessor Steve Reed was said to have previously confirmed to the committee that the Labour Government was looking at reforms to create "a fairer, more progressive" council tax system.
Ms Rayner said: "A few months ago, there was a different prime minister and a different secretary of state. I'm telling you, as the Secretary of State today, that I am not working on any plans at the moment to change the council tax system, other than what has already been announced and changed."
The Government has announced a new high value council tax surcharge, imposing a new annual flat rate charge on residential property in England valued at £2 million or more. The measure is expected to generate between £400 and £430 million per year for the Treasury from 2028-29.
Asked whether she would urge the Treasury to redistribute this money to areas that have "lost out" in the past, Ms Rayner said: "I recognise local government has been through hell and back over the last decade or so. I recognise that, actually, if we want a devolution agenda, if we want to put power back in people's hands, then local government is critical to that and needs fair funding."
