Home Building Target

Lord Young of Cookham Excerpts

Tuesday 15th September 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Young of Cookham]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in reaching their target of building 1.5 million homes in this Parliament.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Baroness Taylor of Stevenage) (Lab)]

My Lords, we are driving progress through our bold planning reforms: the £39 billion social and affordable homes programme fund, and our new £16 billion National Housing Bank, which is expected to support over 500,000 homes. Alongside programmes such as the New Homes Accelerator and Small Sites Aggregator, we are working with industry and local authorities to deliver the homes this country needs. The latest statistics, published in June, show that an estimated 392,400 net additional homes have been built this Parliament, with a 15% increase in starts and a 54% increase in outlying planning proposals.

[Lord Young of Cookham (Con)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for her reply, but only Ministers believe that the 1.5 million target is achievable; even the National Audit Office said that the chances are slim. The Prime Minister has recently decided to channel public money for housing away from housing associations and through local authorities. First, does the Minister agree that this means we will get fewer social homes, because housing associations can top up public money with private borrowing while the local authorities cannot? Will she urge him to change direction? Secondly, does she agree that many of those renting could afford a mortgage if they had some help with a deposit? Has she read today’s Financial Times, which indicates that the previous Secretary of State urged the Government, before he was sacked, to introduce a successor to Help to Buy? Will she urge the Prime Minister to continue with that, as this will give the market the confidence it so badly needs?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

On the noble Lord’s first question, the Prime Minister was talking about support between local authorities and housing associations. It is important that we have good collaboration between the two partners in delivering social housing. I look forward to a very productive relationship between local government and our registered providers. I do not believe that it will lower the number of houses that can be delivered, particularly as we now have the National Housing Bank that this Government brought in. I will write to the noble Lord on his second question.