John Healey MP, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Minister for Housing and Planning, commenting on Local Government Association research revealing that a record 475,000 homes in England have been given planning permission but have yet to be built, said:

“Tory Ministers’ belief that you solve the housing crisis by simply stripping away planning rules that build affordable homes and make sure local people are consulted is nonsense.

“After five years of this approach, home ownership is now at the lowest level in a generation and fewer homes were built over the last five years than under any peacetime government since the 1920s.

“The Government’s Housing Bill repeats these same mistakes – and chokes off much-needed affordable homes with it. Ministers need to wake up to the fact that their housing plans are failing.”