Labour predicted to miss housing target according to West One Loans Analysis

The latest analysis by West One Loans, a provider of property finance, estimates the Labour party still needs 12 years to honour its 2024 General Election Manifesto promise to deliver 1.5m net additions to England’s housing supply during its first five years in power.

West One Loans’ new research suggests that Labour are falling significantly short of their target.

Since coming into power, Labour has overseen an average of 28,667 new-build starts each quarter, which equates to an average of 114,667 per year. But West One Loans suggest, continuing at this rate, it is going to take the government 11.8 years to meet their new-build target of 1.35m new homes.

When outlining their housing target, Labour talks in terms of net additions, a term that includes the creation of new dwellings through property conversions and changes of use of existing buildings.

However, West One Loans claim historic data shows 89.8% of net additions come through new-build development. This means that new-builds can be expected to account for around 1.35m of Labour’s overall 1.5m target.

Thomas Cantor, co-head of short-term finance at West One Loans, says: “The Labour Government was quick to hang its hat on an ambitious target with respect to housing delivery and, with previous government’s having consistently fallen short, this was understandably met with a great degree of scepticism. Of course, it is still early days and Labour may well be in the process of laying the initial groundwork required to eventually pave the way for an explosion in new home delivery.

“But whilst it’s possible that they need time to overhaul planning rules, cut red tape, and prepare and incentivise the nation’s housebuilders to increase output, it’s already looking as though the task of delivering what was promised is running away from them. This will come as little surprise to the industry who have been consistently calling for further market stimulation via government intervention of monetary policy. We simply haven’t seen enough done in this respect and given the lack of movement with respect to interest rates of late, the worry is that we aren’t unlocking the full potential of development activity at a time when it’s needed most.”