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John Healey MP, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning, has released new analysis showing the Chancellor’s housing announcements are already starting to unravel.

An ‘increase’ in housing investment that is still a cut

The Chancellor said that “I am doubling the housing budget”, but new analysis shows that it has almost halved compared to the investment plans that he inherited from Labour. 

‘New’ homes that are not new 

The Chancellor promised “400,000 affordable new homes”, but he’s double-counting 250,000 which have been previously committed.

‘Affordable’ homes that will not be affordable

The Chancellor promised that his investment would build homes that are “affordable” but so-called ‘starter homes’ could require first time buyer incomes of £100,000 a year, and new analysis from Shelter suggests that shared ownership properties could be unaffordable to more than half of all households across the country.

Commenting, John Healey said: 

“The bluster of George Osborne’s statement masks the reality that his housing pledges are actually a huge cut in investment compared to the plans he inherited from Labour and that most of the so-called ‘new homes’ he has announced today have already been committed.

“After five years of failure from the Tories, with home-ownership having fallen each and every year since 2010 and house-building down to its lowest level since the 1920s during George Osborne’s time at the Treasury, we needed much better from the Chancellor.

“Labour will continue to press the government to build more homes that are genuinely affordable to young people and families on ordinary incomes, to rent and to buy.”