CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves was dealt a fresh blow today after campaigners warned that Labour’s “numbers game” approach to its ambitious housing targets were doomed to end in failure.

The warning came as the Home Builders Federation (HBF) said government forecasts for economic growth from house building were too optimistic without more help to first-time buyers to stimulate demand and slashed planned taxes on new homes.

In a letter to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR),  Neil Jefferson, chief executive of the representative body for the home building industry in England and Wales, said: “The OBR’s forecasts for housing supply were ambitious.

“The numbers are only achievable in the right policy environment.”

And Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC) co-founder and secretary Suzanne Muna warned that Labour’s “numbers game” approach to house building targets “is a sure way to land in failure.”

The lecturer in trade union studies at City of Bristol College told the Morning Star: “The housing crisis is primarily one of affordability rather than solely relating to supply and a range of measures are needed to address them. 

“But allowing developers an even greater level of autonomy does nothing to deliver the kind of housing solutions needed by the majority of people affected. It just allows developers and landlords to increase their profits.”

SHAC is among housing campaign groups that back an “increase [in] house building through local authorities with directly employed labour rather than relying on big corporate developers,” she added.

“Overall, we need a coherent focus on housing in the round, and an understanding of the interplay between different elements. Cherry picking one aspect and putting arbitrary targets in place is a sure way to land in failure.”

Echoing her calls, Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said: “Ministers need to invest more in council planning departments if there’s to be any hope of meeting targets.

“A lack of skilled and experienced planning officers is slowing down the process and putting huge pressure on other council staff.

“Local authorities need the resources to recruit far more planners to clear the backlog. Only then might communities get the homes, schools and services they need.”

Labour pledged in its manifesto to begin work on 1.5 million new homes over the course of the parliament, which house building corporations — whose profits depend on maintaining high prices through scarcity — have repeatedly argued is too ambitious.

Jack Yates, spokesman for Acorn housing union, said: “This is the inevitable conclusion of any government leaving the housing market in the hands of private developers. 

“And it’s no surprise that developers are pushing for less regulation and more tax cuts in order to build. 

“If the government really wants to end the housing crisis, we need to take the system out of the hands of those who exist only to pursue profit, address the root causes of soaring rents, the shortage of affordable homes, and failed policies that put lining landlord and developer pockets before people.”

And a spokeswoman for the left-wing group Momentum added: “Labour promised to get Britain building. But the party has insisted on private developers leading the way. 

“The predictable consequence is a woeful failure to meet the government’s housing goals. Only a mass council house building programme will deliver the homes our communities need.”

HBF’s warning, first reported by The Times, is believed to decrease the chances of the OBR watchdog upgrading its forecast for economic growth from construction. 

Speaking on LBC today, Home Office minister Alex Norris insisted that the government “made that commitment and we’re going to deliver on” the target.

“The reality is we inherited a broken house-building system,” he added.

“The lack of targets meant that the market ground to a halt — of course that’s taking time to ramp up.

“Whether its changes to the planning framework, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill that’s working its way through Parliament — we’re making changes to make it better to build in those communities in this country.”

A government spokesman said: “We will leave no stone unturned to build the 1.5 million homes this country desperately needs and restore the dream of homeownership.”