The spending review will ‘make or break’ Labour’s chances of building 1.5 million new homes over the next five years, says the Commons housing committee chair.  

Housing, Communities and Local Government committee chair Florence Eshalomi (pictured) wrote to the Chancellor to “underscore the importance of investment in social and affordable housing.”

Eshalomi warned Rachel Reeves that “the government will fail to meet this target if it relies on the private sector alone,” to hit its target of building some 300,000 homes a year. 

The letter from the housing committee chair comes as reports say that housing secretary Angela Rayner, home secretary Yvette Cooper and energy secretary Ed Miliband, are the three remaining ministers holding out for more cash ahead of the government’s multi-year settlement to be announced next Wednesday. 

Reeves wants to spend as much as £113bn throughout this parliament across such areas as defence, infrastructure, housing and transport, while capping day-to-day departmental costs. 

But Eshalomi said: “Despite the cross-party consensus of the need to increase housebuilding, successive governments have for decades failed to deliver enough new homes.  

“This has resulted in and a housing affordability crisis, with families waiting years on social housing waiting lists and the dream of home ownership fading for many.” 

She highlighted that Shelter, Crisis, and the National Housing Federation say the government should set a target to deliver 90,000 social rent homes per year to begin to tackle the growing waiting list for social housing in England. 

Eshalomi wrote that 1977 was the last time the UK built over 300,000 homes in a single year. 

“That year, more homes were built by local authorities than private enterprise,” Eshalomi added.