The two remaining candidates vying to be the next UK prime minister have declared they are both opposed to the existence of national housing targets for England. However, the need for homes for families, single people and the elderly is not going to disappear as easily.

Their stance is so disappointing and is likely to be seen as little more than a tactic to avoid new developments in the greenbelt or Tory strongholds. It would be impossible to deliver enough new homes from brownfield sites alone, especially because permitted development rights where, for example, planning permission is not required to convert to unused commercial space to homes, are being restricted in many areas.

The housing crisis is getting worse and the current soundbites from Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak will do nothing to deliver the 300,000 homes we need each year:

“Helping councils to get local plans in place more quickly to deliver beautiful homes” relates to the proposed design codes. These will take an inordinate amount of time to write, implement and are unlikely to be sufficient to deal with the varied characters and styles seen across London anyway.