Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has admitted that he opted to scrap the 300,000-a-year new homes target due to pressure from Tory members and councillors.

Sunak got rid of the longstanding target last December, which was introduced in the 2019 Conservative Manifesto.

Sunak told ConservativeHome: “I spent a lot of the time over the summer when I was talking to so many of our members, so many of our councillors, about our planning system and their views on it. What I heard, consistently, particularly from our councillors and our members, was what they didn’t want was a nationally imposed, top down set of targets imposed telling them what to do.”

Lisa Nandy, shadow housing secretary, said: “It is utterly shameful that the prime minister admits he ditched housing targets because he’s too weak to stand up to Tory members. That decision has pushed housebuilding off a cliff and exacerbated a housing crisis that was already causing misery for millions of families and young people, but Rishi Sunak clearly thinks that’s all OK because a few thousand Tory members are happy.”