TORY failures to increase housing stock and wages will see benefit costs soar by £1 billion over the next four years, the shadow work and pensions secretary told the GMB conference yesterday.

Speaking in Nottingham, Rachel Reeves cited new parliamentary figures which revealed that “the cost of the government’s failure to get more people earning enough to put a roof over their head is the equivalent of 24,000 more nurses or 30 million additional GP appointments.

“And we all know why this is. We have more people than ever who are working but not earning enough to pay the rent — let alone get a mortgage and we have the lowest levels of house-building since the 1920s.”

To remedy the issue Ms Reeves said that Labour has “radical” plans to get 200,000 homes built a year by the end of the next Parliament.

The plans were well received by the conference, but the union said a Labour government needed to go further — paying particular attention to social housing.

General secretary Paul Kenny said: “GMB members are priced out of the owner occupied housing market in vast areas of Britain. They need houses for rent.

“Using expensive private sector landlords funded by taxpayers to provide these houses for rent needs to be phased out.

“The country needs a target for new build homes of 250,000 per year plus a minimum of 30,000 empty homes brought back into use. At least 80,000 of the target need to be in the social housing sector. This cannot be done without a major programme of council house-building.”

Mr Kenny was clear that Labour needed to move quickly if it gains power next year.

“An incoming Labour government from 2015 will need to make affordable housing a central part of its economic and social strategy,” he added.

“Some of the strategic and institutional changes will take time to put into full effect but the intention needs to be clear from the start with an immediate emergency programme and legislative action from the first session of the new Parliament.”