Housebuilding targets to be scrapped following Tory rebellion

This development follows after 100s of backbench MPs threatened to back an amendment that would force the government to capitulate to demands for the targets to be scrapped. Originally, the plans were to build 300,000 new homes a year in England.

The target will now be seen as only advisory, having previously been mandatory. Former Prime Minster Liz Truss described them as “Stalinist” during her leadership campaign.

Housing campaigners have described the move as “worrying”, as critics of the Prime Minister see this as evidence of putting party over country.  

The move saves an embarrassing rebellion for Sunak and Housing Minister Michael Gove as they look to avoid a showdown in the commons so early in Sunak’s premiership. The first spark of rebellion came to light as the government pulled a vote on the levelling up and regeneration bill last month (November).

The rebellious MPs, led by Tory MPs Theresa Vickers and Bob Seely, had been holding meetings with Gove in the lead up to this announcement, hoping to find a middle ground to settle on. Those efforts were apparently in vain.

According to the Guardian, Gove wrote to Tory MPs stating: "there is no truly objective way of calculating how many new homes are needed in an area" but that the "plan making process for housing has to start with a number".

Shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy tweeted last night (05 December): “If this is true, it would be unconscionable in the middle of a housing crisis.

“We offered Labour votes to defeat the rebels, but Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove seem to have chosen party before country. This is so weak. In office but not in power.”