Angela Rayner has conceded that the government has only a slim chance of building 1.5 million new homes in England before the next general election, while insisting she is not abandoning the pledge. Speaking to the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the Housing Secretary said the target remained the government's ambition even though the arithmetic has become forbidding. About 203,000 new homes were completed in England in the 12 months to June 2026, well short of the roughly 300,000 a year required to deliver the manifesto commitment by the end of the current parliament, which must happen by summer 2029 at the latest. BBC Verify analysis showed new housebuilding actually declined during Labour's first year in power. Rayner pointed instead to the pipeline, saying home starts rose by 15% last year and that the government was therefore making a difference. She blamed a series of headwinds for the shortfall, among them the war with Iran and sharply rising construction costs, and argued that being honest with the public about the difficulty was preferable to pretending the target was comfortably within reach. Her predecessor as housing secretary, Steve Reed, had admitted last year that a sharp surge in construction would be needed, while maintaining the goal would just about be met once planning reforms took hold. Rayner also signalled a shift in emphasis towards social housing, saying the prime minister had made it fundamentally clear that he wants council houses built. Andy Burnham has promised the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period, a pledge that now carries much of the weight of the government's housing record and which will be judged against the same 2029 deadline.