Michael Gove claims government’s 300,000 housebuilding target was always optional

Michael Gove has claimed the government’s target of building 300,000 homes a year was always optional – but insisted that the Tories will still meet it.

In a speech in London, the housing secretary said the target, set in 2017 by the then chancellor Philip Hammond, had “never” been mandatory.

But he pledged to meet the ambition by the middle of the decade with intensive building in cities, as he unveiled plans that would make it easier to convert empty retail premises into flats, as well as a push to expand Cambridge.

It comes after The Independent revealed that the majority of councils had failed to build a single social home in the past five years, as 1.2 million families languish on waiting lists.

Housing charities described Mr Gove’s plan as a “mixed bag” and warned that stuffing people into unsuitable converted accommodation could make the housing crisis worse.

And Conservative MPs – some of whom are against new housing in their areas – seized on the housing secretary’s plan for an urban extension of Cambridge and vowed to fight it.

In a speech in King’s Cross, Mr Gove said the government would be “unequivocally, unapologetically and intensively concentrating our biggest efforts in the hearts of our cities”.

“We haven’t dropped the 300,000 target,” he said. “It’s a conclusion that people have drawn erroneously, if I can put it politely.”

Asked about reports that ministers are changing the target so that it is no longer mandatory, he said: “It never was. The 300,000 target remains as it always has been.”

Mr Gove however conceded that the government was making “specific changes” to the National Planning Policy Framework that would alter the way the local plans are drawn up.

Under these changes, the way the national ambition for 300,000 homes is translated into local housing targets would give individual councils more room for manoeuvre. Critics say it will result in fewer homes being built.

A report by the Commons housing committee published earlier this month said these plans would make it “impossible to achieve” the 300,000 ambition nationally.

But Mr Gove on Monday said he was “confident we’re on a trajectory to reach that 300,000 target”.

The housing secretary also used his speech to accuse Labour of wanting to concrete over the countryside after the opposition announced earlier this year that it wanted to build more housing on green-belt land.

The housing secretary said the opposition’s approach to planning would lead to “erosion of environmental assets,” “communities opposing development”, and that it would not provide “the scale of growth that we need”.

But shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy said: “It takes some serious brass neck for the Tories to make yet more promises when the housing crisis has gone from bad to worse on their watch.”

Quizzing the government in the House of Lords, Labour’s Baroness Taylor mocked the policy, telling peers: “With over a million people on social housing waiting lists, and 7,000 social rented homes built last year, does the minister really think a few flats built over chip shops is going to solve the problem? My Lords, it’s like putting a sticking plaster on a severed limb.”

Previous attempts by the government since 2010 to light a fire under housebuilding have met opposition from inside the Conservative Party, and Gove faces an uphill battle to get his plans through.

Ahead of the speech, South Cambridgeshire MP Anthony Browne said he would “do everything I can to stop the government’s nonsense plans to impose mass housebuilding on Cambridge”. He said the area was already suffering from a water shortage which further development could make worse.

Asked about the MP’s comments Mr Gove replied: “I’m sure we’ll find a compelling way forward. We can’t have Cambridge – an exceptional city – being held back.”

Polly Neate, chief executive of the housing charity Shelter, described the speech as “a real mixed bag”.

“We need proper investment to build much-needed genuinely affordable homes, not more piecemeal reform,” she said.

“Converting takeaways and shops into homes and restricting building to city centres won’t help. It could risk creating poor quality, unsafe homes that cause more harm than good.

“When we are losing more social housing than we build, the government must work with councils to deliver the quality homes local communities across the country need. The secretary of state clearly agrees these homes are essential, so the government should put its money where its mouth is and get on with building a new generation of social homes.”

Stewart Baseley, the executive chair of the Home Builders Federation, said: “Whilst welcoming the recognition from government that it needs to act if we are to build more homes, the proposals do little to address the major reasons why housing supply is falling.

“The government needs to focus on why the planning process is collapsing and reverse the proposals to weaken the planning system that have now seen 59 local authorities withdraw their housing plans.”

Speaking during a visit to the West Midlands on Monday, Rishi Sunak said the government was “making good progress” towards the 300,000 target.

“Actually, if you look at what has happened over the past few years, we have seen some of the biggest years for new housing supply that we’ve seen in decades and in the last year that we have figures for, the highest number of first-time buyers in over 20 years,” he said.

“We are making progress, I’m proud of that progress, and we’re not stopping there. But we’ve got to do it in the right way, I don’t want to concrete over the countryside, that’s something that is very special about Britain.

“I also don’t want to ride roughshod over the views of communities and their representatives. We want to build in the right places – that’s more brownfield, expanding upwards and outwards, densifying our inner cities.

“These are practical ways to continue delivering homes. Our record on this is fantastic, 2.2 million homes since 2010, but we’re not stopping there.”