Build target ‘not a target’

Opponents accused the government of ‘backtracking’ on the pledge - one of Gordon Brown’s centrepiece policies. The prime minister unveiled his housing plans in July 2007, telling Parliament he wanted to ‘meet housing need by building over a quarter of a million more homes than previously planned, a total, by 2020, of 3 million new homes’.

But as the housing market has tumbled home builders have rushed to cut production, leading to widespread belief in the industry that the ambitious figure is undeliverable.

At a select committee this week, Mrs Beckett was asked what she would do to ensure the government hit the 3 million target, along with its pledge that home building would rise to 240,000 a year by 2016. She replied: ‘I think the most challenging of the targets was the 3 million, but that was an ambition actually, rather than a target.’

The target was the figure for 2016 and that is something we will have to see how we can address,’ Mrs Beckett continued. A source within the Communities and Local Government department later insisted the 2020 figure was a target.

Conservative shadow housing minister Grant Shapps said: ‘The minister is backtracking on the Labour government’s pledge to build 3 million homes by 2020 because she has realised what we have been saying all along - the government doesn’t build homes.’

Adam Sampson, chief executive of homelessness charity Shelter, said the last two housing ministers had carried forward Mr Brown’s ‘commitment’ of 3 million homes and that Shelter would ‘expect Margaret Beckett… to carry on this commitment’.

Asked if the pledge was a ‘target’ or an ‘ambition’, a CLG spokesperson said: ‘Our house building targets have not changed. However, we have been very clear about the scale of the challenge they entail in the current economic climate.’

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