Former Chancellor George Osborne has poured cold water on the oft-repeated house building claim by Ministers that the UK will soon be constructing 300,000 new homes a year.

The desire to build more homes has been stated by many Conservative politicians, including Osborne when he was Chancellor, in response to criticisms that homes are unaffordable for many first and second-time buyers.

During an interview with Naga Munchetty at a recent conference in London, Osborne agreed that to achieve 300,000 new homes, the Government would have to build at least 100,000 ‘council houses’ every year.

“It has been clear for many years that house builders are unable to build more than 200,000 homes a year, so the rest will have to be initiated by government,” he reportedly said.

Last year, only 140,000 new homes were built by developers, 21,000 by housing associations and 1,400 by local councils, approximately the same level as just before the financial crash of 2008.

When discussing other key property industry topics during the interview, including his introduction of a 3% additional stamp duty on buy-to-lets and Section 24 changes to landlord taxation, Osborne stated: “At the time we wanted to see a more level playing field in the sales market between first time buyers and landlords, and those measures were designed to do that.”