GB News host Eamonn Holmes has declared Labour’s housing targets “unachievable” as he told Housing Secretary Steve Reed to “be realistic”.

Speaking to the People’s Channel, Mr Reed denied the figures were “unachievable”, but admitted it was a “stretching target”.

Detailing his plans to “build baby build”, Mr Reed stood firm on his targets to build 1.5 million new homes in England by 2029 to tackle the country’s “housing crisis”.

A series of new additions to the Government’s flagship planning Bill will also see attempts to halt housing development through lengthy judicial reviews arrested.

Delivering his verdict on the plans to “build baby build”, Eamonn told Mr Reed: “You’re in a new job, about a month in now, you understand your brief, and I do get that, you care. You’re very passionate about things anytime I’ve ever spoke to you about previous briefs.

“And this is a heck of a responsibility that has been landed on your shoulders. Now, the first thing people are going to say to you, myself included, is you’ve set targets that are unachievable.

“They’re unachievable, let’s be realistic. Are you going to have to amend them?”

The Housing Secretary hit back: “Well, they’re not unachievable. I hear what you’re saying, I know it’s a stretching target, but we’ve got a housing crisis in this country.

“We’ve seen the number of people sleeping rough in doorways and under bridges double over the last 10 years.

“We’ve got families stuck in temporary accommodation. They call it temporary, but actually it’s a single room and often families are stuck in there for a year with kids sharing a bed, the parent sleeping on the sofa in a single room.

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“And you’ve got young people who are unable to make the dream of owning their own home come true.”

Eamonn interjected, asking the Labour minister: “But how do you build them? How do you get the whole system moving?”

Mr Reed explained: “The problem is what is blocking homes being built. It’s our planning system, it’s too slow, it’s too cumbersome, blockers can too easily stop homes going ahead.

“I’ll give you an example, there’s a council in Essex called Rochford Council, and they blocked 600 homes from going ahead.

“It then went to the courts on appeal, got overturned two years later. And then we got spades in the ground and we got cranes in the sky and the homes got built.”

Vowing to “change the rules” and stop councils from blocking planned housing developments, Mr Reed concluded: “We need to get councils taking the right decisions, not unreasonable decisions and blocking homes when they could go ahead.

“So we’re changing the rules. We’re going to have more powers to stop councils taking that kind of decision.”

He added: “Of course, I believe, and it will always be the case that residents should have a say over what can and can’t be built in their local area.

“But we can’t have councils just blocking the homes that then close down the dream of home ownership for millions of our fellow citizens in this country.”