Homes
2.5 million homes in five years. Ten New Towns. A presumption in favour of building around every commuter station.
Britain has built too few homes for a generation, and it shows up everywhere else: family formation delayed, workers unable to move to where the jobs are, regional resentment, rent and mortgage costs eating incomes. Every recent government has promised a number and missed it. The real government's answer in July 2026 was a £39bn, ten-year council housebuilding programme, which the Centre for Policy Studies calculated would deliver about 15,000 homes a year, a rounding error against the shortage. The parallel government's diagnosis is that the binding constraint is not public money but consent: too few homes are permitted, in the wrong places, too slowly.
A presumption in favour of building around stations
The Planning (Rail Hubs) Bill, introduced on Day 2 and passed at second reading 340 to 212 on Day 6, creates a legal presumption in favour of development within 800 metres of every commuter rail station. Councils must say yes unless they can show a specific reason not to. The first eight pilot stations were named on Day 15.
Why Homes next to stations need the least new infrastructure, put the least traffic on roads, and are where people most want to live. Reversing the default, so refusal needs a reason rather than approval, is the single largest lever on consent volumes that costs the Treasury nothing.
Ten New Towns that pay for themselves
A New Towns Commission appointed on Day 1, a shortlist of 24 sites cut to 14 after visits, and the final ten announced on Day 13. Each gets a development corporation, seated by October, that buys land at close to its current value, grants itself permission, and keeps the uplift to fund roads, schools and clinics.
Why Land value capture is how the post-war new towns were funded and how most successful ones abroad still are. The uplift from permission is enormous; letting a public corporation keep it means the infrastructure is paid for before the first resident arrives, not negotiated afterwards.
A live national housing dashboard
Homes consented and completed, by constituency, published weekly from Day 3. The baseline was 4,900 consents a week; it has risen eight weeks running to 6,900.
Why A target nobody can check is a slogan. Publishing the weekly number, including when it is embarrassing, is how the government keeps itself honest and how readers keep score.
A proportional property tax, in principle
Endorsed on Day 6, with full transition modelling published the same day: winners and losers by region, a ten-year phase-in, and deferral rights for people who are asset-rich and cash-poor. The real Prime Minister backs the same idea; a Commons debate on a 0.48% annual levy replacing council tax and stamp duty is scheduled after recess.
Why Council tax is priced on 1991 valuations and stamp duty taxes moving house, which is a tax on labour mobility and on downsizing. A proportional levy fixes both. The point of publishing the losers table first is that a reform touching 28 million homes' bills should be argued from the spreadsheet, not the slogan.
- 2.5 million homes over five years; 500,000 a year by year three.
- Ten New Towns with development corporations seated by October 2026.
- Weekly consents published every week, whatever they say.
- Consents at 6,900 a week are far off the pace required. Admitted from Day 3 and every week since.
- Compulsory purchase for the New Towns is the measure most likely to be challenged in court and in Parliament. The Human Veto Council softened the terms on Day 7, and a formal consultation opened on Day 44.
- A presumption in favour of building is only as strong as the councils' willingness to apply it, and the courts' willingness to uphold it.