Labour manifesto 2024: 12 key policies analysed

Labour’s promise to build 1.5m new homes in England during the next five years would require a level of housebuilding not seen since the 1960s. The job is even harder because we know that in the last 12 months fewer than 150,000 homes were started – far less than the average 300,000 completions required to meet the pledge. The last time England saw that many homes completed was in 1969, when new council housing contributed 45% of the total.

Over the last decade, on average, 152,000 homes have been completed each year. Historically, private sector housebuilders have only twice delivered more than 170,000 in a year, during the early 1970s. In the last 10 years, they have averaged 123,000.

Labour believes developers have been hampered by planning rules and the price of land. The party’s plans to reform the economics and bureaucracy of housebuilding could see an increase in private provision. But the scale of the ambition still means the party would be reliant on housing associations and local councils to get close to the numbers required and, in the last year, housing associations started 30,000 homes and English councils started just 3,000.