Keir Starmer stood on the steps of Downing Street and promised 1.5 million new homes by the end of this parliament. It was bold. It was specific. And it was, as we now know, complete nonsense. The latest figures from the Home Builders Federation show planning permissions for new homes have collapsed to the lowest quarterly total in over 15 years. Just 42,000 homes given the green light in the last quarter of 2025.

The Numbers Tell The Story

Between April 2024 and September 2025, around 231,300 net additional homes were delivered in England. The government's own target is 300,000 a year. Labour is not missing the target by a little. They are missing it by a country mile. For the year to September 2025, planning permission was given for just 209,781 new homes, the lowest 12-month figure since 2013.

These aren't spreadsheet abstractions. Every home not built is a young couple priced out. Every stalled development is a family stuck in a mouldy rental. Every refused application is another generation losing faith that Britain still works.

A New Bank Won't Fix A Broken System

On 1 April, Labour launched the National Housing Delivery Fund and a new National Housing Bank as a subsidiary of Homes England. Grants. Loans. Investments. More quangos. More acronyms. More Whitehall meetings. But no solution to the actual problem.

The problem isn't a lack of state capital. The problem is a viability crisis caused by the government itself. Increased taxes, levies, and policy costs are making developments economically impossible. When you pile Section 106 obligations, biodiversity net gain rules, energy performance standards, and an ever-thickening planning rulebook onto builders, they stop building. It really is that simple.

Councils Are Part Of The Problem Too

As a councillor, I have seen this up close. Planning departments are understaffed, over-bureaucratic, and frightened of every judicial review. Applications sit in limbo for months. Decisions are kicked into the long grass. Small builders — who used to deliver a third of all new homes — have been squeezed out entirely. The system doesn't just fail developers. It fails the community the council is supposed to serve.

What Reform UK Would Do

Reform UK would slash red tape on small and medium sized builders and give them a genuine fast-track route to build. We would end the viability crisis by cutting the levies and taxes that make developments unbuildable. We would prioritise housing on brownfield land. And crucially we would build for British families, not to accommodate a population being driven upwards by uncontrolled immigration.

Labour's answer is a new bank. The real answer is a new government.