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100,000 new homes at risk due to housebuilding cuts

Thousands of new homes are at risk after a series of local authorities cut or delayed their housebuilding plans after ministers decided to drop mandatory building targets.

A new analysis has found that nine local authorities in England have paused or scaled back their plans after Michael Gove announced last month that the government would no longer pursue a mandatory target of 300,000 new homes a year.

They joined nearly 30 other authorities that made similar decisions. At the same time, they waited for Westminster to decide on its targets, with analysts now warning the confusion over housing policy could cost 100,000 new homes over five years.

Matthew Pennycook, the shadow housing minister, said: “The impact of Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove’s reckless decision to signal the end of enforceable housebuilding targets without a viable alternative is already being felt across the country.

“Their weakness in the face of backbench pressure will mean fewer homes built, a deepened housing crisis and a further blow to our economy.”

Gove announced the U-turn in December, three years after the Conservatives included the target in their 2019 manifesto and months after Downing Street said it was “central to our levelling up the mission”.

His decision came after months of heavy lobbying from backbench Tory MPs, many of whom believed the party had lost the 2021 Chesham and Amersham byelection due to its national planning policies.

As dozens of MPs pushed Sunak to soften or reverse his commitment to the target, several local authorities stopped work on their local housebuilding plans, which were meant to be in place by the end of this year.

The planning consultancy Lichfields has calculated that 33 councils have halted or cut their housebuilding plans in the past two years, leaving England with a shortfall of 50,000 and 100,000 new homes over the next five years.

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