The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is to publish a “detailed rebuttal” of high-profile research by Lichfields that suggested that housebuilding will fall sharply in response to government planning reforms, the housing minister has said.

Rachael Maclean told the levelling up, housing and communities select committee that the government “didn’t accept the premise” of the Lichfields report, which predicted 77,000 fewer homes would be built per year if the national policy reforms consulted on before Christmas were brought into force.

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