BRITAIN’S housing crisis cannot be solved by taking solutions off the table, campaigners told Angela Rayner after she admitted there was only a “slim chance” of meeting the government’s 1.5m homes target.

The Housing Secretary acknowledged today that the flagship manifesto promise would be harder to achieve now due to international “headwinds,” but still promised she was “not giving it up.”

Tenants’ union Acorn said further delays would mean those seeking an affordable place to live would face “more years competing for too few suitable homes.”

Communications officer Dunya Ali told the Morning Star: “You cannot tackle a housing crisis while taking solutions off the table and falling short on the homes you promised to build.

“People cannot keep being promised action only to be let down. We desperately need more genuinely affordable and especially council homes.

“But the government has already ruled out rent controls and is now admitting it is unlikely to meet its own housebuilding target.”

Official data puts the estimated number of new homes built in Labour’s first two years in power at about 392,400.

Suzanne Muna, from the Social Housing Action Campaign, said Ms Rayner’s comments would “come as no surprise to tenants and campaigners.”

She pointed to Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s decision to backtrack to allocate only £10 billion of the affordable housing budget on social rent, rather than the full £39bn.

Ms Muna told the Star the government must “abandon its obsession with market-led solutions.

“We don’t need more unaffordable, low-quality builds that line the pockets of private shareholders.

“We need a massive, state-funded programme of genuine council housing, strict rent controls and an immediate end to the sell-off of public land.”