double the projected rate for 2024-25.

The strategy is clear enough: a fast-track planning route to concentrate development on brownfield sites in England’s 20 largest cities, and a “cast iron” commitment not to touch the greenbelt.

But there are no guarantees that enough brownfield land will come through the planning system, and there is nothing to suggest from the manifesto that the new fast-track planning route will have any teeth.

Successive governments have set national housing targets that have fallen by the wayside without enough “sticks” requiring local planning authorities to implement them.

If most, or all, local authorities retain all their veto powers, it is hard to see how a returned Conservative government could guarantee that enough planning permissions get granted to build 1.

6 million houses in five years.

The manifesto includes some welcome plans for the civil service.

Reducing the use of external consultants, moving more officials out of London to build on the, improving digital expertise and are all things.

But the Conservative Party’s claim to be “