Rachel Reeves admits she will raise taxes in October as Angela Rayner plays down Labour rebellion on housing targets – live

Angela Rayner’s planning “revolution” will see London’s housebuilding target slashed by 20,000 homes, despite a wider push to boost the number of houses being built each year.

The deputy prime minister and housing secretary unveiled a major overhaul of the planning system today, which will see all councils in England given new, mandatory housing targets as part of a plan to deliver 1.5 million more homes in the UK.

She warned that Britain is facing the “most acute housing crisis in living memory”, claiming that the number of new homes is set to drop below 200,000 this year – something Ms Rayner dubbed “unforgivable”.

Our political correspondent Millie Cooke has the full story:

The chancellor has been tackled by their own side over how many more elderly people will die of cold as a result of stripping 10 million pensioners of their winter fuel payments.

In response to the red-on-red criticism in Parliament, the government frontbench said it understood the “disappointment”, but insisted it was the right, if tough choice, given the state of the public finances inherited from the Tories.

The new administration was also accused of “picking” on pensioners with the move, which it was claimed would wipe out the benefits of the triple lock, which guarantees state payouts rise each year in line with inflation, earnings or by 2.5% – whichever is higher.

Challenging the government, Labour peer Lord Sikka argued the move was “taking away” £300 from pensioners by “a measure that was not in our manifesto”.

He told the upper chamber: “I have received already many messages where pensioners are very, very concerned about this.

“The government could have introduced a taper to lessen the pain to help many pensioners. Would the minister give a commitment that he would have another look at that?”

He also pointed out a document produced by the Treasury “has lots of financial numbers but there is no mention of any human whatsoever”.

Lord Sikka said: “Last year, 5,000 pensioners died because of cold and were unable to afford heating. Has the minister made any estimates of how many more will die because £300 will be taken away from them?”

As Israel launches airstrikes on Lebanon to target Hezbollah, the UK has delayed its decision to ban some arms sales to Israel after it faces legal challenges to define arms exports used for offensive purposes, the Guardian reports.

Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, he added: “We support Israel’s right to defend itself in line with international humanitarian law. They are in a tough neighbourhood threatened by those that want to annihilate it.”

It comes as Israel’s war on Palestine took a major turn after Hamas’ political chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed by Israel in Teheran, Iran.

Diane Abbott has led criticism of Rachel Reeves’s spending plans labelling them “renewed austerity”.

It comes as the chancellor unveiled a raft of brutal cuts to deal with a £22bn black hole in the country’s finances.

But her set of measures to save up on funding has sparked criticism among members of her own party.

The veteran MP for Hackney has accused Ms Reeves of presiding over an era of “renewed austerity”.

Ms Abbott is leading a left-wing backlash over the chancellor’s move to scrap winter fuel allowance payments, cancel transport projects and Boris Johnson’s plan to build more hospitals.

Nigel Farage has said he will not back Rachel Reeves’ plan to scrap winter fuel payments for pensioners labelling the Labour decision “cruel and cynical”.

The MP for Clacton told GB News: “I have to say I think it’s rather a cruel thing to do, and I certainly won’t be voting for it as and when I get the opportunity.

“There were times in the past where maybe the argument was that it wasn’t necessary and it had been given as a bribe. But it’s almost like Labour are saying, ‘well, we don’t care about the pensioners, because they’re not going to vote for us anyway’.

“That money that could have gone to pensioners has gone for massive public sector pay rises, including over 22 per cent for junior doctors. This is a very cynical thing she did.”

The deputy prime minister has played down a Labour backbench rebellion against the government’s housebuilding plan.

The housing secretary announced a radical reform to housing plans to lay out the foundations for 1.5 million new homes over the next five years. The minister also set out an annual target of 370,000 homes for local authorities.

But she has dismissed suggestions that she could face MPs opposing the mandatory housebuilding targets on councils if found unpopular in local areas.

Asked by reporters on Tuesday whether she was “gearing up for a fight” with Labour MPs and councils over the new plans, she replied: “Well, Labour councils and Labour MPs know that we’ve got a housing crisis and they’ve been very supportive of our manifesto pledge, which was 1.5 million homes, and knowing full well that that meant we had to really drive that.

“What we need is all areas [is] to recognise the crisis we have and then do something about it, and we’re going to help them do that by driving through these changes so that we get the houses we desperately need.”

Pressed on the issue again, she added: “I think the biggest challenge when I’ve spoken to communities is that often these houses are not for them.”

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has said the government would put in place housing plans in local areas as a “final and most extreme” intervention to ensure targets are met.

He told Times Radio: “We are prepared to take local plans off local authorities and ensure they are put in place. That would be the final and most extreme type of intervention that we would contemplate.

“What we’d rather do is encourage and support local councils to get those plans in place. You’re right to refer to them because local plans are the best way that local communities can engage with the planning process, can shape development in their area, in the way that they want to see it take place.”

He added: “We want to see local plans in place by next year, there’ll be a process to drive up coverage across the country.

“But this is right that this is the focus, in the sense we have a local plan-led planning system, and what we’ve inherited from the previous government is only a third up to date local plan coverage.

“So we’ve got a system that is chronically underperforming, that is not functioning as it should as I say, if we boost local plan coverage in the way we want, cities will be able to shape the development in the way that they see fit. But the conversation has to be how it’s done, not whether housing targets and housing need is met.”

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has confirmed local authorities may be forced to release green belt land to make space for new housing.

Mr Pennycook told Sky News: “If local authorities can’t meet their targets through previously developed brownfield land in the first instance or in co-operation with neighbouring boroughs, they should look to then release low quality greybelt land within the greenbelt. Lots of the package yesterday was focused on the targeted release of that greybelt land.

“But in certain circumstances, certain local authorities may, if they can’t through brownfield or in co-operation with neighbours or through greybelt release, need to release some elements of the greenbelt – that happens already.

“Just to be really clear, we’ve not inherited a situation where the previous government didn’t release any greenbelt land at all. They were releasing it in quantity but in a haphazard, unplanned way, and often in a way that didn’t meet local housing needs.

“So what we’re saying is there’s a smarter way to release the right bits of the greenbelt – greybelt low quality land primarily – and to ensure through our golden rules that when it is released, we get development that meets local housing needs.”

The UK’s renewable energy budget has been increased to a record £1.5 billion, Ed Miliband announced on Wednesday.

Of that, £1.1 billion will be allocated for offshore wind, which the government described as “the backbone of the UK’s clean energy mission”.

Our political correspondent Millie Cooke has the full story:

Kemi Badenoch has dismissed accusations that she bullied civil service staff while serving as business secretary as “smears”.

The Conservative MP, now shadow communities secretary, is alleged to have created an intimidating atmosphere at the Department of Business and Trade in a report by the Guardian newspaper.

“Let’s be clear: these allegations are smears from former staff who I sacked after they were accused of bullying behaviour, lying about other colleagues to cover up their own failures and general gross incompetence,” Ms Badenoch wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“Intolerable behaviour I would not stand for,” she added.

The Tory former minister, among those running to be the party’s next leader, also claimed the Department of Business and Trade had confirmed there were no complaints and no investigations against her.

She said the accusations would not “stop me or my campaign” and claimed her bid to be the next Conservative leader following the party’s general election rout had “spooked the lefties and now they’re coming for the one person they know can beat Keir Starmer”.

Ms Badenoch, the MP for North West Essex, added: “The renewal of my party and the country is too important to let the Guardian, acting for the Labour Party, disrupt.”

A spokesman for Ms Badenoch added that she has “high standards and expectations, and she has cultivated high-performing civil service teams who enjoy working with her”.