It’s 18 months since Labour won its landslide victory in the 2024 general election. Such was its majority that most of us expected an end to the political instability of the previous Tory government.
The construction sector in particular was looking forward to a boost in public spending – Labour is traditionally the party of tax-and-spend. Infrastructure projects held in limbo would surely get the go-ahead.
But this government really does not want to be seen to be raising taxes, although the chancellor’s November budget craftily did so by moving some of the goal-posts.
Facing a “£22bn black hole” in the public finances but not wanting to squeeze the taxpayer too hard – no wonder Rachel Reeves was moved to tears. Most disappointing for the building industry has been the government’s failure to make good on its election promise to deliver 1.5m new homes by 2030. It was pretty clear from the outset that this was going to be a tough call.
As we report on pages 21 and 22, the house-building sector just cannot deliver what the government has promised.
And it’s not just house-building. The government has had to scale down – or abandon outright – a number of key manifesto promises since coming into power, mostly because there isn’t enough money. A previous Labour government came into power promising that