The Labour party has made a good start in its push to see 1.5 million new homes built over the next five years, removing many of the barriers to development erected during the dog days of the last government.

Higher housing targets are an essential starting point. If we don’t aim to deliver enough new homes in the first place, we’ll never see them built.

Our cities, towns and villages must be allowed to expand outwards to achieve those targets, and the proposed changes to national planning policy will help. The new “grey belt” category of land - intended to make it easier to release poorer quality parts of the green belt for development - is the most obvious example of how that will be achieved.