Failure on housing is the fault of Whitehall, not town halls - Healey

Responding to reports that the Government will force councils to build more homes, John Healey MP, Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, said:

"This year-old policy shows again that Ministers have no proper plan to fix the housing crisis. Eight years of failure on housing is the fault of Whitehall, not town halls.

"Since 2010, home-ownership has fallen to a 30 year low, rough sleeping has more than doubled, and the number of new homes being built still hasn't recovered to pre-recession levels.

"In the week he’s surrendered £800 million of unspent housing funds to the Treasury, more buck-passing from Sajid Javid isn't going to cut it. It's time the Tories changed course, and backed Labour's long-term plan to build the homes the country needs."

ENDS

Notes

A 'housing delivery test' for councils was proposed in the government's housing white paper, published in February last year: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/590463/Fixing_our_broken_housing_market_-_accessible_version.pdf