Labour Party Conference 2025 – Good vibes for housing, but 1.5m feels a long way off

For me this year’s Labour Conference carried an unexpectedly upbeat mood around the ACC and fringe events – the elation of a landslide victory tempered by the realities of a year in government.

Whilst being optimistic, delegates often circled back to the looming spectre of Reform UK, one that’s hard to ignore given the recent polls and local elections on the horizon in May. Still, I felt the Prime Minister’s speech struck the right notes – arguably his best since becoming Party Leader in 2020 – and the party is right to feel buoyed. That momentum may be short-lived as attention turns back to the harder tasks of rebuilding public trust, delivering on manifesto pledges and cutting Reform’s lead in the polls.

And for those of us in housing, planning and development, questions remain with approvals and housing starts dwindling.

Housing was high on the agenda for the second year. New Secretary of State Steve Reed was hard to miss in his red ‘Build Baby Build’ cap, flanked by an enthusiastic Labour YIMBY crowd. Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook defended planning reforms and funding changes introduced in the last 12-monhths to turbo-charge delivery, but was pressed for more – particularly at the excellent panel hosted by the Fabian Society and Hallam Land.

The flagship pledge of 12 new towns could deliver a sizeable share of the 1.5m homes target, but opposition MPs have already come out with concerns about infrastructure and the loss of countryside. The new towns may come forward through development corporations with special powers to cut red tape and help with deliverability, however the private sector remains stymied by economic challenges that are less easy for the Government to grapple with in the short-term – land values, the cost of borrowing and construction costs all contributing to make development sites unviable non-starters.

At the end of Conference I was left with a recurring thought. If housebuilding is to exceed post-war levels being talked up, both national and local government must directly address the anxieties communities will raise when presented with a significant number of new homes on their doorstep and a back-drop of ‘Build Baby Build’ – GP capacity, hospital waiting times, congestion and school places to name but a few. As former No. 10 SPAD Nick Williams argued, the narrative cannot remain binary – i.e. build anything anywhere versus no development.

For Labour, tackling Reform with less divisive politics must also mean promoting housing delivery in a way that recognises local frustrations that are levelled at the feet of years of Conservative austerity. Brushing aside community concerns serves no one – whether applications come from housing associations, councils or private developers. It cannot be reactionary and should not be left to individual applications, regardless of scale.

The case for new homes will only succeed if framed around visible local benefits: investment, job creation, affordability and social housing, underpinned by clear commitments to infrastructure. Joining the dots for communities and taking them on the journey is vital, and only then will Labour’s ambitious numbers start to feel credible and, crucially, achievable.