A glorious exchange on GB News this morning. Steve Reed, the new Housing Secretary, has been making a big song and dance this conference about his plans to ‘build baby build.’ Red caps bearing the slogan are being dispersed to delegates who are proudly displaying them around Liverpool. There is just one problem: the government is woefully off track on its pledge to build 1.5 million new homes by the end of this parliament. Asked by Camilla Tominey for how many homes have been build in the 14 months Labour have had thus far, Reed replied thus:
I don’t have the exact – I’m not Wikipedia. No, I’m not Wikipedia, I’m here to talk you about policy. Somebody’s researched it for you and given it to you and someone hasn’t researched it for me and give it to me… because you’ve got a stat on a bit of paper that I haven’t got says nothing whatsoever other than you’re trying to do a “Gotcha!” moment and that’s so sad for your viewers because they’d probably like a sensible debate.
The actual answer? 117,390. At that rate, it would take, in Tominey’s words, ’13 years to reach your 1.5 million house building’ target. Reed, who succeeded Angela Rayner in the job earlier this month, admitted that the current rate was ‘unacceptable’ but argued that it was consequence of ‘dealing with the tail end of Tory failure.’ Only 1.38 million new homes to go eh?
You can watch the exchange below:
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