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Rayner insists she's 'absolutely determined' to hit 1.5 million new homes target despite tariff blow to UK economy
5 April 2025, 06:51 | Updated: 5 April 2025, 07:26
Angela Rayner has maintained that she is "absolutely determined" to get 1.5 million new homes built by 2029 despite the economic turmoil caused by the US tariff announcement this week.
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The housing secretary and deputy PM told LBC that even reaching the "stretch target" would not solve the housing crisis.
Planning reforms brought in by Labour would help solve that over the years to follow, Ms Rayner said.
She pointed out that Rachel Reeves "announced last week 2 billion brought forward in the Affordable Homes programme to make sure that we get more council and social homes that we desperately need."
The latest figures available showed that 1.29 million people were on waiting lists for social housing in the UK as of March 2023.
Read more: Labour wants 1.5 million homes - but where are the builders?
Rayner insists she's 'absolutely determined' to hit 1.5 million new homes target despite tariff blow
Ms Rayner said this was too many and admitted she would not be able to solve the problem in the next four years "because this has been decades in the coming... this crisis that we have.
"But it will start to turn the tide and therefore we can't afford not to meet that target."
Chancellor Rachel Reeves vowed the £2 billion in grant funding to deliver up to 18,000 new homes in England will go some way to "fixing the housing crisis".
The funding is described by the Government as a "down payment from the Treasury" ahead of longer-term investment in social and affordable housing expected to be announced later in the year.
The housebuilding boost is aimed at helping to fulfil the Government's pledge to build 1.5 million new homes over the next five years.
Last month the government's flagship planning reforms have cleared their first Commons test.
Angela Rayner joins Tom Swarbrick as Labour announces £2 billion for affordable housing | Watch in full
MPs voted 330 to 74, majority 256, to approve the Planning and Infrastructure Bill at second reading on Monday evening.
Rayner said the Bill would speed up the planning system, help achieve the 1.5 million homes target, allow for an expansion of Britain's energy network and give greater environmental protections.
She told the Commons: "Make no mistake, this Bill will transform the lives of working people and Britain's prospects for years to come. It is hugely ambitious and rightly so, because everywhere I go I hear the same frustrations.
"We just can't build anything any more. We desperately need more homes and more development. But for too long, the answer has always been no, and that is choking off growth, leaving working people worse off, and leaving Britain behind."
