LONDON — The Conservatives can still live up to their 2019 manifesto promise to build a million new homes in the U.K. by the end of the parliament, Britain’s housing minister has insisted, even with the clock ticking as an election looms.
Speaking at a POLITICO Live event on the U.K.’s housing crisis, Conservative Lee Rowley — who has been in post only three weeks after years of churn in the policy brief — acknowledged it was “absolutely the case that we have a shortfall in terms of number of houses compared to how populations have grown” in the U.K.
But he struck a bullish tone on the Tories’ headline target, saying:“We’re going to get to a million homes at the end of this parliament.”
The governing Conservatives have faced pressure over a 2019 manifesto pledge to build 300,000 homes annually by the mid-2020s. Housing is likely to be a key battleground in the upcoming general election as squeezed supply continues to make it hard for Brits to put down roots.
Official figures show just 234,400 homes were added to England’s housing stock in 2022-2023. That’s similar to 2021-2022 figures, and down from the 243,000 new homes built in 2019-2020 at the start of the parliament.
Rejecting the suggestion that the U.K is in the middle of a housing crisis, the minister said there is a “tendency in modern life, especially in the last 10 years, to think everything is a crisis.”
Speaking at the same event, Conservative MP Kevin Foster said the rapid churn of housing ministers — with 16 people cycling through the role since 2010 — has “not been helpful” to Britain’s home-building drive. He said he hoped Rowley now “gets a good long period” in post to make a difference.
But Jayne Kirkham, a Labour councilor in Cornwall and parliamentary candidate for Truro and Falmouth, warned that second homes and an abundance of short-term lets are making for a “very, very difficult” situation in local areas.
She warned of “real issues” in Cornwall, in the southwest of England, where 26,000 people currently sit on a social housing wait list, while some 14,000 short-term lets are used as holiday homes.
“You have people who are homeless living in hotels in the winter and then they get to the summer, and they will get kicked out over the weekend,” she said.
Braverman pushback
Rowley also distanced himself from former Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s controversial comment that rough sleeping is a “lifestyle choice” for some people. Braverman — who was sacked in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s reshuffle last month — made the remarks as she talked up plans to restrict the use of tents by homeless people.
Pressed on the remarks, Rowley said he would “let Suella make her own comments,” adding: “I deal every week with people who are desperate, and it’s important that we make the system work.”
“What somebody said in a tweet a month ago is not how we fix things for people who are in need,” he said of the right-wing Braverman’s remarks. “It’s not how we fix the issues across housing.”
