Housebuilding to fall for three years as red tape scuppers Labour’s new homes push Property The UK’s progress towards its ambitious housebuilding target has been dealt another blow after the fiscal watchdog said housing output is set to slow for another three years. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said housing delivery will fall to 229,000 this year, to 221,000 the following year and to 219,000 in the year 2027-28. [...]
Healey pledges £1bn for social housing as housebuilding slump threatens Labour target Property John Healey has pledged more than £1bn in additional funding for social and affordable housing as new figures reveal a sharp fall in housebuilding, raising fresh doubts over the government’s target of delivering 1.5m homes. The funding, due to be confirmed in Wednesday’s Budget, will take the government’s 10-year social and affordable housing programme beyond [...]
Ministers back City skyscraper plans after Tower of London row Property Ministers have given the greenlight to plans that will allow skyscrapers to be built in the area surrounding the Tower of London, ruling that proposals set out by the City of London corporation will do enough to protect the site’s Unesco status. Housing minister Matthew Pennycook said on Thursday he will withdraw his objections to [...]
Wandsworth Council plans 94 per cent tax rise after Rayner’s cuts September 16, 2026 Wandsworth Council has announced taxes will rise by 94 per cent for Band D residents after local leaders hit out at the government for cutting funding by £84m a year. The local authority, regularly dubbed Margaret Thatcher’s favourite council because of its historically low-levels of council tax, will make Band D council taxpayers stump up [...]
Rayner urged to resolve ‘unwelcome’ Tower of London heritage row September 16, 2026 Angela Rayner has been urged to resolve an “unwelcome” heritage row which could place curbs on skyscrapers in the Square Mile to protect views of the Tower of London. The housing secretary has been told that the planning dispute, which was revived by a housing minister in June, risks stalling critical investment in office space [...]
500m bricks ‘just sitting there’ as 1.5m homes target looms September 14, 2026 There are half a billion bricks lying unused in Britain, it has been revealed, piling fresh pressure on the government’s “stretch target” of building 1.5m homes by the next election. As many as 500,000,000 bricks – enough to build 50,000 homes – are “just sitting there” in factory yards across the country, the GMB Union [...]
Rayner warns Reform’s £72m crypto windfall could be caught by new donor rules September 13, 2026 Angela Rayner has warned Reform UK that its record £72m fundraising haul from two cryptocurrency billionaires could be caught by retrospective rules being pushed through parliament. The housing secretary said new restrictions on political donations from Britons living abroad, or those who have recently returned to the UK, would be backdated as ministers seek to [...]
Hospitality sector blasts Burnham’s uncapped tourist tax September 10, 2026 The hospitality sector has blasted proposals from Andy Burnham’s government to introduce a fresh tax on tourists. The industry has been left reeling after the government confirmed a new overnight levy on tourists that will have no upper cap. Regional authorities are set to be handed the power to introduce a levy to support regional [...]
M&G: FTSE 100 giant hits out at Rayner’s ground rent cap as it suffers loss September 3, 2026 Asset manager M&G has swung to a loss driven by the Labour government’s introduction of a cap on existing ground rents. The FTSE 100 group hit out at the government after it reported a £165m loss for the first six months of the year, driven by a £325m write-down eating into its bottom-line. In its [...]
Housebuilder shares soar on Burnham council housing plans August 25, 2026 Shares in the UK’s biggest housebuilders rose sharply on Tuesday morning after Andy Burnham revealed plans to spend an initial £10bn on affordable housing. In an announcement on Monday evening, the Prime Minister said the initial funding package would be used to build “thousands more quality council, social and affordable homes”. The funding would be [...]