Keir Starmer accused of hypocrisy over Camden housing targets
Keir Starmer has been accused of hypocrisy over low housebuilding targets in his own constituency amid a country-wide push to ‘get Britain building again’.
Camden council, which falls within Starmer’s constituency of Holborn & St Pancras, has shrugged off the government’s targets for housebuilding this parliament and instead used figures set by the 2021 London Plan.
While the current Labour government has set an annual target for housebuilding in Camden of 3,317 homes, the north London council’s draft new local plan aims for just 770 homes per year in the local authority, flying in the face of the government’s own manifesto commitments on new homes.
Camden council said the target was “derived in accordance with the [London 2021] local plan” – although the local authority’s housing figures even fall short of the city-wide plan, which aims for just over 1,000 homes per year in the borough.
The paltry building target comes despite the fact that as many as 8,000 Londoners are stuck on Camden council’s housing waitlist.
Labour has vowed to deliver at least 1.5m new homes in England by 2029, and has targeted 88,000 new homes a year for London – even though the 2021 London Plan promises the never-before-achieved 52,000.
Shadow housing secretary Kevin Hollinrake said Starmer was “letting Labour councils quietly duck the hard decisions.”
“Starmer says he wants to “bulldoze” through the planning system, but in practice he’s tiptoeing around local opposition.”
“If he won’t confront the inertia in his own constituency, or the political cowardice in his own party, why should anyone believe he’ll fix the housing crisis nationally?” he said.
‘This isn’t just policy drift — it’s hypocrisy’
While the government has the power to set housing targets nationally, London functions slightly differently – and more independently – than the rest of the country.
Crucially, the 2021 plan – which gives guidelines for councils on local developments – precedes housing targets set by the government.
London boroughs are not required to factor in the government’s housing targets until 2026, when the next London Plan is drafted.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – headed by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, said that its housing targets “require London to deliver record levels of housebuilding, and it is for the Mayor and the GLA to determine the overall distribution of housing in the city.
“We expect local areas to meet their targets so we can restore the dream of homeownership as part of our Plan for Change, with decisive action already taken through our major planning reforms.”
“We have inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory and all areas, including Camden, must play their part as we deliver 1.5 million homes,” the spokesperson said.
CityAM understands that the reliance on the 2021 plan is a London-wide issue, with other councils implementing similar policies based on targets laid out in the document.
“This isn’t just policy drift — it’s hypocrisy. You can’t claim to be the party of builders while turning a blind eye to Labour-led councils behaving like blockers,” Hollinrake said.
“This isn’t some Lib Dem-run borough dragging its feet; it’s a Labour council, in a Labour city, represented by the Labour leader himself.”
Camden Councillor Adam Harrison said: “It’s astonishing that the shadow local government and housing secretary doesn’t understand how housing targets operate in London.
“The capital is in a housing crisis–he should be across the facts. As is well known, the targets for London boroughs will be set as part of the new London Plan, which is expected next year.
“In Camden, there are currently over 3,000 consented homes in Camden that the private sector has yet to build out in Camden – the shadow minister may be better advised urging them to get on with it.”
London’s £4m-a-day housing crisis
The housing crisis in London is especially acute, with as many as 336,366 households on London local authority waiting lists for social housing and soaring prices in the private rental market amid a shortage in supply.
Temporary association for homeless Londoners costs councils a staggering £4m per day, a report by think tank Centre for Cities has estimated.
The viability – the chance of making money – on homes in urban areas is thought to be lower than in many rural locations, so fewer homes are built even as more people flock to cities for work.
While the government has pledged billions in support for housing and made efforts to reform the planning system, the changes have yet to filter through into the housing market.
Government data out earlier this week found that the number of planning applications approved in London has fallen by two per cent year on year, with 15,400 applications received and 1,300 applications decided.
In May, City Hall announced that it had reached an agreement with the Ministry of Housing to cut the affordable targets Mayor Sadiq Khan has to hit by the end of the year.
The target was reduced from starting 23,900-27,100 affordable homes by March 2026 to starting 17,80-19,000, the second such reduction in Khan’s term.
Camden started just 38 affordable homes in the 2024/25 financial year, and completed 316.
“Despite the government’s pledge to remove red tape and accelerate planning decisions, businesses are yet to feel any impact of planning reform,” Kelly Boorman, national head of construction at RSM UK, said.
Planning permission for housing units has been on a downward trend since 2019, Boorman added.
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “The Mayor is proud of his housing record, which includes meeting the target set by the previous Government to start 116,000 affordable homes across the capital. Under his leadership, London completed more homes than at any time since the 1930s before the pandemic, and council housebuilding has hit the highest level since the 1970s.
“The Mayor shares the Government’s ambition to turbo charge the delivery of housing in London and across the UK, and will do everything he can to meet his own target of delivering 40,000 new council homes and thousands more genuinely affordable homes by the end of the decade as we work to build a better, fairer London for all.”