Housing secretary Steve Reed says ‘job on the line’ over 1.5m homes target
Government housing secretary Steve Reed says his job is on the line over a pledge to deliver 1.5m new UK homes by 2029.
Reed’s comments were delivered as part of a BBC documentary set to be aired tonight (20 October), where several industry experts, including the chief executive of the Home Builders Federation, expressed doubts that the target – a cornerstone pledge in Labour’s 2024 manifesto – could be met.
In the hour-long programme, Reed said he did not expect house prices to fall, but said a rise in wages relative to inflation would make new homes being built more affordable.
He added that a lack of affordable housing had led to aspirations of home ownership becoming a “nightmare, rather than a dream” for young people in the UK.
“I’m absolutely going to meet that 1.5m target, and it will make the celebration all the sweeter if people are telling me I can’t do it,” he told the BBC’s Panorama programme.
“That target was given to me by the PM when I accepted this job and I accepted it, and my job… should be on the line if I fail to meet my target, so I expect to be held to account for it.
“We are going to ‘build, baby, build’ because that’s the only way we tackle the housing crisis that we’re facing in this country.”
Reed coined the catchphrase “Build, baby, build” ahead of last month’s Labour Party conference in Liverpool, where he told delegates he would “do whatever it takes to get Britain building again.”
Over the past month, Reed and chancellor Rachel Reeves have announced new measures to speed up the planning process with local authorities, including measures to prevent councils from refusing planning permission while the secretary of state considers whether or not to call in an application, eliminating the risk of planning permission timing out due to legal review, and streamlining Natural England’s role in planning.
Last week, Reeves also announced plans to cut the average length of judicial reviews for national level infrastructure projects by around six months.
“It’s important to signal to people that we have the determination to solve the housing crisis, I think it’s one of the drivers for younger people for a loss of confidence in our system,” added Reed.
“I was able to buy my first flat in my early 30’s – young people today cannot because the costs are out of reach for them and that at least in part is because the supply of housing fell off a cliff.
“People’s home is one of the biggest investments they make in their lives and I don’t want to see the value of that falling, I want to see new homes being built and I want people to be able to afford to move into them.”
