Emma Reynolds MP, Labour’s Shadow Housing Minister, responding to George Osborne’s comments on housing on the Andrew Marr show, said:

“The growing housing shortage is central to the cost-of-living crisis but David Cameron has refused to take the action needed and is presiding over the lowest levels of house building in peacetime since the 1920s.

“The Government has had four years to make progress on Garden Cities but instead of getting on and building them, Ministers have spent their time making empty announcements and suppressing reports. We will wait to see the detail in the Budget, but people will want to know how today’s announcement to build 15,000 homes in Ebbsfleet differs from the announcement to build 20,000 homes in the same place in 2012.”

“We need a Help to Build policy to boost housing supply and tackle the cost-of-living crisis, alongside a reformed Help to Buy scheme. Failure to tackle this crisis will mean home ownership will remain out of reach of many low and middle-income earners, rents will continue to rise faster than wages and waiting lists will grow ever longer.”

“Labour is clear that you can’t deal with the cost-of-living crisis without building more homes. That’s why Labour has committed to getting 200,000 homes a year built by 2020, including by building a new generation of new towns and garden cities.”