The Housing Secretary will convene the first national housing delivery board on Tuesday.
asserted
Secretary → convene → Tuesday
Its purpose is to look at where building standards and regulations, as well as the planning system, are slowing down efforts to build.
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standards → look → efforts
Highlighting the meeting as an important step, she told the committee: "I do not accept that I need to readdress that target.
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I → highlight → target
“I know it’s a challenge.
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it → know → ?
I know that people will come to me at the end of this Parliament and will say ‘You haven’t met that target’ if I don’t meet it and I’m determined to do everything I possibly can.”
uncertain
I → know → everything
Concerns have been raised that the government's flagship target of 1.5 million homes by the next general election will not be met within the timeframe.
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target → raise → timeframe
In response to questions, the Housing Secretary insisted she was “realistic about the challenges we face”.
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we → insist → challenges
But she rejected suggestions the target would not be delivered despite rising costs and other challenges.
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target → reject → costs
Ms Rayner has said she refuses to “admit defeat” on the target.
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she → say → target
Referring to her two terms as Housing Secretary as “album one” and “album two”, Ms Rayner said: "In album one, the situation when we created the target of 1.5 million homes, the media were particularly saying that it's impossible, we can't do it.
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we → refer → it
So we knew it was a difficult target then.
"
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it → know → ?
Since then, in album two, since I returned we've obviously got the war in the Middle East that has increased costs.
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that → return → costs
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“But I’m not giving up on that target, chair, and I refuse to admit defeat on it.”
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I → read → it
Ms Rayner highlighted that 437,000 homes had been built since the general election.
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homes → highlight → election
Building starts, she said, were up by 20% on last year.
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she → say → year
She added: “We always knew the changes would take time to come in: the biggest wave of social and affordable housing, the investment we’ve put in, which is 40 billion, and the changes to national planning policy framework and the housing bills we’ve got going through Parliament – all our measures in which we’re trying to ensure that the delivery ramps up and is sustainable going on beyond this Parliament into the next.”
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delivery → add → next
Then questioned on what level of new homes delivery would be reached by the next election, the Housing Secretary said: "You invite me to concede defeat on the 1.5 million homes target.
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You → question → target
I am realistic about the challenges we face in meeting it.”
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we → face → it
Ms Rayner's predecessor Steve Reed was said to have previously confirmed to the committee that the Labour Government was looking at reforms to create “a fairer, more progressive” council tax system.
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Government → say → system
Challenged on this, the Housing Secretary said: "A few months ago, there was a different prime minister and a different secretary of state.
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Secretary → challenge → state
"I'm telling you, as the Secretary of State today, that I am not working on any plans at the moment to change the council tax system, other than what has already been announced and changed.
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what → tell → system
“We are obviously supporting people with the cost of living crisis, and that remains one of our key focuses as a department and as a Government.”
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that → support → Government
When questioned on inconsistencies in council tax charges across the country under the current band system, she said her focus had been on reforming local government funding to support areas based on need.
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focus → question → need
The Government has announced a new high value council tax surcharge.
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Government → announce → surcharge
It would impose a new annual flat rate charge on residential property in England valued at £2 million or more.
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It → impose → million
When asked whether she would urge the Treasury to redistribute this money to areas that have “lost out” in the past, Ms Rayner said: "I recognise local government has been through hell and back over the last decade or so.
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government → ask → decade
“I recognise that, actually, if we want a devolution agenda, if we want to put power back in people’s hands, then local government is critical to that and needs fair funding.”
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government → recognise → funding
Ms Rayner told the committee she did not accept the 1.5 million homes target needed to be readdressed, and that she was not working on plans to change the council tax system beyond what has already been announced.
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what → tell → system
The Aporia
