However, Francis also said: “It’s easy for any party not in government to just claim they will get rid of red tape and cut costs but both the Conservatives and Labour have been in power in the last five years and have added extra costs to house building.”
The Future Homes Standard, for instance, was first proposed in 2019 when Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in power.
Other analysts point out that the upfront construction cost savings from the plan could potentially lead to higher government spending in the future.
Housing expert Anna Clarke said: “Cutting the costs of house building by £50,000 would be really helpful in getting much-needed new homes built.
“But if you don’t get developers to pay for new schools and infrastructure you need to pay for them some other way.”
And some analysts argue that updated environmental building standards, such as requiring heat pumps rather than gas boilers in new homes, are forecast to save households money in the long-term by reducing their domestic energy bills.
Dr Richard Lowes of clean energy advocates the Regulatory Assistance Project told Verify: “If the energy bill implications are not carefully considered, households may be lumbered with very high bills for decades.
“The lowest running costs can typically be achieved with heat pumps paired with solar and batteries.”
Additional reporting by Nicholas Barrett