Angela Rayner’s plea to landowners – ‘allow us to unblock your land for brand spanking new houses’

Angela Rayner has called on landowners, local authorities and housebuilders to flag up blocked sites where more homes could be built.

The Deputy PM and Housing Secretary has vowed to tackle the housing crisis as official analysis suggests more than 200 large sites across the country have plans ready to go but are yet to begin construction. She is now appealing to those across the country who can help her identify even more sites to ramp up the builds.

Ms Rayner has launched the New Homes Accelerator – a group of experts – to smash down barriers to housebuilding. The experienced team, including specialists from regeneration agency Homes England and the Ministry of Housing, will work across government and with local councils to revive house building schemes delayed by planning and red tape.

The Labour minister has issued an urgent plea to those who can help find more sites to build homes on as she warned “there is no time to waste”. “Fixing the housing crisis isn’t just about figures on a page – it’s key to improving lives of working people, growing our economy and strengthening our communities,” she said. “Decent, affordable homes to buy or rent are the ingredients of hope for working families, like the one I grew up in. ”

In a message to stakeholders, Ms Rayner said: “We have already identified up to 200 large sites around the country where outline or detailed plans are ready to go but construction has yet to begin. That’s around 300,000 much-needed hew homes that could potentially be built out faster.

“But we want the Accelerator to find more such sites and ramp up the builds. So as part of today’s launch, I am calling upon landowners, local authorities and housebuilders to come forward and flag up blocked sites. The bigger the better – which is why I have asked them to tell us about large developments that are encountering significant delays or obstacles.”

Angela Rayner’s plea – in full

Across Britain, millions of people have had their lives put on hold because of the housing emergency we face. Ordinary working people, doing the right thing, who can’t get a foot on the ladder because too few homes have been built.

In every town and city young couples are stuck living with parents into their 30s, unable to move out, get on, and start a family of their own – or paying soaring rents to live in cramped shared housing. For too many people, the basic foundations of a good life – a safe, secure and affordable home – have never seemed farther away.

Today, I am launching the New Homes Accelerator as one of the many ways we are tackling this crisis. Because despite the urgent need, there are literally hundreds of thousands of consented homes in our development system that are not progressing fast enough.

The Accelerator – a crack team of experts from my department and Homes England – will rapidly identify planning blockages, fix problems and support local authorities and developers to get shovels in the ground. It will help people make new lives and start families of their own.

And it will help the government honour our mission to get Britain building again – boosting the economy and delivering the homes which local communities so desperately need. Our pledge to deliver 1.5 million homes over the course of this Parliament includes the biggest boost to affordable and social housing in a generation.

We have already identified up to 200 large sites around the country where outline or detailed plans are ready to go but construction has yet to begin. That’s around 300,000 much-needed hew homes that could potentially be built out faster. And we have made a start on accelerating the delivery of four delayed housing projects in Liverpool, Worcester, Northstowe and Sutton Coldfield that will provide 14,000 new homes.

But we want the Accelerator to find more such sites and ramp up the builds. So as part of today’s launch, I am calling upon landowners, local authorities and housebuilders to come forward and flag up blocked sites. The bigger the better – which is why I have asked them to tell us about large developments that are encountering significant delays or obstacles.

The scale of the emergency we’ve inherited is truly shocking. For too long the Conservatives were too weak to stand up to vested interests in the Tory Party, and instead scrapped local housing targets, torpedoed housing supply. As a Labour government we believe we have a moral obligation to do everything within our power to build the homes that people desperately need, and we won’t hesitate to take the tough choices to address this.

The New Homes Accelerator builds on our wider plans to turbocharge housebuilding and infrastructure improve local decision-making and modernise the planning system through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill announced in the King’s Speech.

And we will introduce new mandatory housing targets for councils and bolster local resources with 300 additional planning officers, while making more brownfield and grey belt land available for development and kickstarting the next generation of new towns.

Fixing the housing crisis isn’t just about figures on a page – it’s key to improving lives of working people, growing our economy and strengthening our communities.

Decent, affordable homes to buy or rent are the ingredients of hope for working families, like the one I grew up in. They are also the foundations of national renewal which this government was elected so decisively to deliver.

We’ve taken the first steps towards rebuilding our country and creating a better, fairer, more secure housing market that works in the interests of all. We must keep up the pace to deliver the change Britain needs. There is no time to waste.