LABOUR said local authorities may need to “release some elements” of green belt land and confirmed the restoration of mandatory housing targets as it set out its plans to build 1.5 million new homes over this Parliament today.

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook said the government will step in to “ensure targets are met” if local plans are not put in place by next year.

“If local authorities can’t meet their targets through previously developed brownfield land in the first instance or in co-operation with neighbouring boroughs, they should look to then release low- quality grey belt land within the green belt,” he said.

He also defended the decision to to cut housing targets for London from 100,000 new homes a year to 80,000, saying the previous figure was the result of an “arbitrary 35 per cent urban uplift” imposed on every borough in London.

“What we’re saying to the mayor — and let’s be very clear on this, the current London plan is around 52,000 homes, current delivery in London is just over 30,000 — we’re saying the London target is 80,000. That’s incredibly stretching,” he added.

Generation Rent deputy chief executive Dan Wilson Craw said: “It is clear that whatever the target for housebuilding in London is, not enough is currently being built, which is why rents have been shooting up over the past few years.”

A spokesman for the London Renters Union said: “We need more scrutiny on the issue of who will own these new homes.

“Market-rate housing is out of reach for most working-class people and many of these will end up in the hands of private landlords who charge unaffordable rents.

“The government should be putting forward specific targets for council and social homes and ending the Right to Buy so that the 1.4 million households on the social housing waiting list can finally have a secure place to call home.

“Home ownership will not fix the housing crisis, and it’s time for the government to start treating housing as a public good, rather than a private asset for the wealthy.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has asked two experts — Sir Michael Lyons and Dame Kate Barker — to lead the independent New Towns Taskforce.

It is to spearhead plans for new towns of at least 10,000 homes each.