Angela Rayner set to deliver fewer homes than Tories managed during period blighted by Covid pandemic

That is fewer than the 1.89 million built under the Conservatives between 2019 and 2024, which was blighted by the Covid pandemic and cut short by an early election.

Ms Rayner and Labour insisted housebuilding was a priority when elected in 2024, pledging to deliver 1.5 million new homes this Parliament.

In August, she changed planning rules to give new builds near railway stations an “automatic yes”, in a move the Government said would result in “thousands of quality homes”.

But she admitted there was only a “slim chance” of reaching the Labour target in September, but insisted she was “definitely not giving up”.

The Housing Secretary blamed the Iran war and high construction costs, saying increasing interest rates have weighed on the housing market.

Katie Lam, the Shadow Housing Secretary, said Labour had “no excuse” for missing targets.

She told The Telegraph: “They’ve utterly failed to bring their pledge to fruition because they’ve layered taxes and red tape onto the industry, making building less and less viable.”

And, writing in GB News in response to the Budget, she said the “biggest blockers to building are the Net Zero building regulations which Healey explicitly promised to maintain”.

Steve Turner, the executive director of the Home Builders Federation, said Labour’s reforms since taking office were welcome but failed to address “the massive increase over the past 20 years in the level of taxation and policies, all with a cost, levied on to housebuilding by successive governments”.

These included requirements to build affordable homes as well as environmental schemes and taxes.

The OBR released its housebuilding projections alongside the Budget, slashing its estimate for the next five years by 190,000.

It said Labour’s reforms would “have a positive impact on housebuilding”, but the downgrade reflects “wider pressures in the construction sector because of weak demand, rising material costs and the impact of other regulatory changes”.

Mr Turner also said demand was being driven down by “a lack of affordable mortgage lending”.

John Healey has instructed Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, to find more ways to help first-time buyers.

Labour also confirmed its Your First Home scheme in the Budget, which will let first-time buyers purchase homes with a 2.5 per cent deposit, backed by 20 per cent in Government-backed equity loans.

Mr Healey has called for the Bank to “target improving access to home ownership without prejudicing financial stability” and examine the rules around high loan-to-value mortgages.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “We’re getting this country building again and with new housing starts up 20 per cent compared to this time last year, and a 298 per cent increase in London alone, our bold planning reforms are working.

“We’ve always been clear that delivering 1.5 million homes was a stretch target and we recognise the challenges the sector is facing with construction costs and macro-economic headwinds.”