The government will seriously undershoot its target of freeing up enough land to build 160,000 homes by the end of next March, forcing it to extend its deadline and dealing a blow to Theresa May’s hopes of solving the housing crisis.
In a progress report before the end of its latest five-year housing programme, Kit Malthouse, the local government minister, admitted that government departments had only managed to make enough land available to build 65,000 homes by the initial target date.
“Departments have agreed immediate actions to identify more land to bring into the programme and to accelerate disposals where possible to improve performance,” Malthouse said.
