Hilary Benn MP, Labour’s Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary, responding to a leaked document revealing the Government’s failure on house-building, said:

“This leaked document lays bare the stark truth of this Tory-led Government’s failure on housing. Despite endless ministerial announcements and claims, officials are advising them in private that housing starts are astonishingly set to fall. David Cameron already holds the dubious record of presiding over the lowest level of peacetime housebuilding since the 1920s.

"It’s also a bit rich of ministers to attack councils for their housebuilding record when one of their first acts in 2010 was to cut the affordable housing budget by 60%. It is no wonder that the number of new social homes is at a 20-year low.

"What this means is that a whole generation of young people currently facing rising house prices and rising rents have been completely failed by this government. What we need is Labour’s comprehensive plan to get Britain building. That’s why Ed Miliband has committed to increasing housebuilding to 200,000 homes a year by the end of the next Parliament, creating thousands of jobs, helping with the cost-of-living crisis and assisting young people and families to get a foot on the housing ladder.”

ENDS