Comment: 'Labour wants to build 1.5 million homes — how many will be council houses?'

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has committed to 1.5 million new homes over the next Parliament (Lucy North/PA) (PA Wire)

We could be about to enter a golden era of housebuilding — with one major caveat.

Labour has recommitted to the manifesto promise of building 1.5 million homes over the next Parliament, with a rebranded Department of Housing, Communities and & Local Government (the tedious and empty “Levelling Up” has been removed).

It’s an ambitious target, on a par with the 1.2 million delivered by the 1945-1951 Labour government. But crucially, one million of those mid-century homes were council houses, providing tenants a dignified and affordable alternative to the vagaries of the private rental sector and giving local authorities an income stream that could be reinvested.

Those council homes were built with central government subsidies amid the economic wreckage left by the Second World War. But today the cupboard is apparently even more bare. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed these new homes will be primarily funded and delivered by the private sector.

That’s potentially 1.5 million homes developed for profit, , with no sense of how many of that target will be “affordable” or available at social rent. Private developers will be unwilling to see historically high house prices fall, something public housebuilding would be unfettered by while boosting the economy. Meanwhile the private rented sector runs amok, with soaring rents leaving tenants unable to save for a deposit for tenants.

Like mandatory housebuilding targets, the promised no-fault eviction ban will be a boon, but it won’t get to the root of the issue. For-profit housebuilding hasn’t solved a housing crisis anywhere yet, nor has it ever brought prices down. Council homes and rent control may have that whiff of socialism about it, but Labour has the mandate.

You can’t affect capital-C Change without bold moves.