Rishi Sunak has been accused of abandoning housebuilding targets to court Tory members while running to be party leader and prime minister.
In an interview with the ConservativeHome website on Thursday, Sunak acknowledged that “the vast majority of people want to own a home” and insisted it was something his party “continues to be incredibly supportive of”.
However, he said that during the Summer Conservative leadership contest to replace Boris Johnsonhad spoken to Tory members, campaigners and councilors and they expressed “no support” for national house building targets.
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“I spent a lot of time over the summer talking to so many of our members, so many of our councillors, about our planning system and their views on it,” he said.
“What I heard, consistently, especially from our councilors and our members, was that what they didn’t want was a top-down, nationally imposed set of targets to tell them what to do.”
He said the government was investing in brownfield sites, first-time buyer schemes and stamp duty exemptions.
Labour’s shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy branded Sunak’s comments “absolutely disgraceful” and accused him of putting party before country.
“It is utterly disgraceful that the Prime Minister is admitting that she abandoned the housing targets because she is too weak to stand up to Tory members,” he said.
“This decision has pushed housebuilding off a cliff and exacerbated a housing crisis that was already causing misery for millions of families and young people, but Rishi Sunak clearly believes that all is well because a few thousands of conservative members are happy.
“We need a prime minister who puts our country ahead of his party.”
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The Prime Minister’s comments come just two weeks after the government released new figures showing planning applications in England had fallen to their lowest level in at least 16 years.
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Last December, the government came under heavy criticism reducing the target of building 300,000 homes each year after several Conservative MPs raised objections.
A Commons vote on the Leveling and Regeneration Bill had to be withdrawn in November after 60 Tories signed an amendment calling for the mandatory target to be removed.
The target was later redefined as a “starting point” and “advisory” in a move that drew backlash from a different set of Tory MPs, including former party chairman Sir Jake Berry, who said: ” The Tories must deliver for the next generation. if we ever hope to be voted in.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Sunak admitted that his plans to stop small boats in Canal ‘won’t happen overnight’ as he was pushed into the deadline to fulfill one of his five key promises to voters.
He also denied having any role The fall of Mr. Johnson as Prime Minister, saying that “it was none of my business” and that he had resigned for reasons “personal” to him, including a “fundamental difference in economic policy”.
The Conservatives have been contacted for comment.
