Starmer and Sunak agree the UK needs more houses to ease the crisis – here’s how their plans compare

Both parties agree some reform of planning regulations will be needed to keep house prices from spiralling further. Go My Media/Shutterstock

Aiming to reclaim his party’s role as the builders of “property-owning democracy”, Rishi Sunak used the Conservative manifesto launch to praise his predecessor Harold Macmillan. As Winston Churchill’s housing minister in the 1950s, Macmillan first set the target of completing more than 300,000 homes across the UK each year.

Now that same target, although ambitious, must be achieved to meet the UK’s demand for new housing, and to make homes more affordable.