Tory minister met with laughter from Question Time audience over housing claims

13 October 2023 , 09:29

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Tory minister met with laughter from Question Time audience over housing claims

A Tory minister was met with laughter from the Question Time audience after claiming the Government was on track to meet its housing commitments.

The audience of the BBC programme reacted with mirth when Victoria Atkins tried to defend the Government's record on building new homes in response to a question over how young people could get on the housing ladder. Sixteen-year-old Imogen told the panel she was worried about being able to afford her own home if she racked up massive debts by going to university.

Another audience member was applauded when he said: "I truly struggle to understand how the Tories believe that they are helping young people with housing."

In response, Ms Atkins, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said: "We all acknowledge how difficult it is for young people to get on the property ladder... what is important is really helping first time buyers onto the property ladder."

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper looks unimpressed

Presenter Fiona Bruce challenged her over the shortage of homes, saying: "You're nowhere near building as many homes as you have pledged to." Ms Atkins replied: "We're on track to deliver our manifesto commitment to deliver one million homes this Parliament. We are absolutely on track."

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The presenter interjected: "[Ex]Housing Minister Robert Jenrick said you're nowhere near it, 300,000 a year." Ms Atkins replied: "We're on track, we delivered 2.3million homes since 2010 and of course we've had schemes throughout the decade helping first-time buyers."

The 2019 Tory manifesto promised to build "at least a million more homes of all tenures over the next Parliament", with a target of 300,000 new homes a year by the "mid 2020s". But ministers have failed to hit the 300,000 figure every year since 2019. The cross-party Levelling Up Committee warned last month that the Government is unlikely to meet the 300,000-a-year target but it could still hit the one million figure.

Rishi Sunak said in July that the Government was on course to meet its commitment to build a million new homes this Parliament. But the latest available data shows 687,390 additional homes were built in England between 2019 and 2020 - meaning more than 300,000 homes would need to be built before the next election, expected next year.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper looked unimpressed as Ms Atkins gave her response. The Labour frontbencher said there had been a drop in home ownership and said people had hit by mortgage hikes following Liz Truss's disastrous mini-Budget.

She added: "They've still dropped some of the targets, some of the policies they did have in place to try and drive housing growth."

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Lizzy Buchan