Our response to Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has delivered her Spring Statement, outlining plans for housing and planning.

CPRE chief executive Roger Mortlock said:

Addressing the housing crisis is about so much more than powering growth. It’s about building the homes people need in the right place. We heard too little from the Chancellor today about affordable homes, homes for social rent or the 1.2 million homes that could be built on brownfield sites in England alone.

The Chancellor has misplaced confidence that the ‘grey belt’ will solve the housing crisis. It will only deliver car-dependent, identikit estates of unaffordable homes across our countryside and undermine the green belt, invented by Labour.

With the OBR predicting that house prices will continue to rise, the UK’s housing affordability crisis shows no sign of abating. People in rural areas are often worst hit, thanks to higher house prices and lower average incomes.

The Chancellor appears to have no plan to hold the housebuilding industry to account and ensure it actually delivers the homes the government is promising. We know the big housebuilders control supply to maximise profit. They have a role to play, but unchecked, it’s like putting the fox in charge of the hen house.