Starmer accuses Rishi Sunak of ‘killing the dream of home ownership’
Keir Starmer has accused Rishi Sunak of “killing the dream of home ownership for a generation” with his decision to scrap housebuilding targets, as he again used prime minister’s questions to try to portray Sunak as privileged and out of touch.
Saying that hundreds of thousands of people would be paying higher mortgages because of the fiscal chaos amid Liz Truss’s brief administration, Starmer said the Conservatives had used people’s money “as a casino chip”.
Echoing a tactic used regularly in recent weeks, Starmer again highlighted Sunak’s enormous family wealth and his wife’s use of non-domiciled status to avoid paying UK tax on overseas earnings.
Asking Sunak how long it would take for the average saver to put together £9,000 for a mortgage deposit, a question the prime minister ignored, the Labour leader said this was four years, adding: “We’ll also put it in a different way in terms the prime minister will understand: roughly the annual bill to heat his swimming pool.”
He castigated Sunak for his decision last year to drop compulsory housebuilding targets for councils despite the crisis over a lack of housing, a decision made so Sunak could avoid a potential rebellion by Conservative MPs, themselves under pressure from Tory councillors.
“For most people, four more years of scrimping is a hammer blow to their ambitions,” Starmer said. “Now he’s kicking them when they’re down, because his decision to scrap housing targets is killing the dream of home ownership for a generation. Why doesn’t he admit he got it wrong and reverse it?”
Sunak replied by saying he had “put local people in control of new housing, and I’m proud that’s what I delivered within six weeks of becoming prime minister”, adding: “He [Starmer] wants to
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