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Housing Secretary Steve Reed has admitted there will need to be a sharp surge in housebuilding to meet Labour’s promise to build 1.5 million new homes.<\/p>\n
Housebuilders have warned the government will miss its target<\/a>, after the number of new homes started fell from 207,000 to 139,000 after Labour took office – the lowest since the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n Reed said he expected the government to “just meet” its target once the impact of planning reforms<\/a> take hold, including new targets and some building on former green belt land.<\/p>\n In a fuller interview as part of BBC Radio 4’s new Housing Britain<\/a> series, Reed said ministers were “pulling every lever” to hit the target by 2029, when the next general election is expected.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Reed, who took over the housing brief three months ago from Angela Rayner, said the government “always” expected “the big increase to come in the latter part of this parliament”.<\/p>\n “I’ve heard it described as a hockey stick, you know, because it is a relatively gentle increase until it shoots up towards the end,” he said.<\/p>\n Reed insisted the government had already “put in place huge changes” to increase housebuilding, such as the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, currently in its final stages in Parliament, which he said would “dramatically speed up” decision\u2011making.<\/p>\n A major part of the plan is to make it easier to approve homes near public transport, which Reed claimed “could be worth a million” homes on its own.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, the government also announced plans<\/a> to shake up the house-buying system to speed up sales and save first-time buyers money.<\/p>\n