When, in 2024, Angela Rayner pledged to build 1.5 million new homes, we dreaded the despoliation and girded our loins. Why should home ownership be the preserve of only oldies and boomers? Where are the under-50s to live? But – no great surprise – the building boom has not happened. Apparently for the same reasons it hasn’t happened for the past four decades. What was a surprise was Angela even thinking she could magic up enough painters, decorators, carpenters and bricklayers to build 1.5 million ‘homes’ in the first place. Most existing UK homeowners cannot find anyone reliable to tackle even a minor job since the Poles went back home in search of a higher standard of living after Brexit. Meanwhile, Rachel Reeves’s Renters’ Rights Act has resulted in 25 per cent of landlords’ taking their rentals off the market. There are beds in sheds in Westbourne Grove. There is...
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