‘Slim chance’ government will hit 1.5m new homes target, Rayner tells BBC

There is only a “slim chance” the government will meet its target of building 1.5 million homes in England by the next election, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has told the BBC.

“Headwinds” including the Iran war and rising construction costs are making it harder to meet the key Labour manifesto pledge, Rayner told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

“But I’m definitely not giving it up,” she said, and stressed that the government was “making a difference” through investing billions in social and affordable homes.

Data up to March this year suggested the government was behind on the rate of construction needed to meet the goal, which housebuilders have previously warned was too optimistic.

Labour promised to hit the target through building both private and social housing by the end of the current parliament, meaning summer 2029 at the latest.

This implied an average of 300,000 new properties would be needed each year – a rate of construction not seen in decades.

Rayner told the BBC on Sunday: “It’s a slim chance, but I’m definitely not giving it up.”

She said it was important to keep the goal – which she said had always been a “stretch target” – in place, but that she was “being honest with the public” that it would be difficult to achieve.