Called to answer questions by the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, Pennycook was pressed on the government’s ability to produce these homes and its lack of clarity around this.

In an at times tense session, the housing minister insisted the government maintained confidence in these targets.

Pointing to recent OBR projections that, as a result of NPPF reforms, estimated an additional 170,000 homes would be delivered Pennycook said:

“It remains a whole of parliament target, but we are confident of meeting it,” said Pennycook.

The housing minister was questioned as to the need for interim targets and how many homes would need to be built a year.

When asked by committee chair, Florence Eshalomi, if he agreed that at least 300,000 homes would need to be built a year to meet this target the housing minister declined to agree.

““We have not set an interim target, I don’t think it’s complex to understand,” he said.

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“It’s no surprise that completions for 2024/25 are still under 200,000, and given the lag between change in consent volumes and subsequent changes in completions we would expect them to remain low for some time.”

Several committee members took exception to this, with member Gagan Mohindra highlighted the committee’s purpose was to scrutinise the government’s ability to deliver on its targets and act as “critical friends.”

Fellow MP Lee Dillon also pointed to a “constant battle with ministry” in trying to get more transparency from the government around this.

Dillon explained that the committee needed to know which policies were working and which were not, highlighting the government must have knowledge of each change’s anticipated impact on housing delivery.

“You’re essentially asking for internal forecasts from the government?” asked Pennycook, who then added: “No government has done this in the past.”

“Well be a better government then,” retorted Dillon.

In the near-two hour session, the minister was pressed on numerous issues and Lewis Cocking raised the issue of developer contributions to areas.

Here the MP asked the minister about instances where once-promised investments in local areas, to receive outline planning permission, were then backed out of.

He added: “Developers are definitely playing the system.”

In response, Pennycook said he wanted to first “ensure local authorities are in position to negotiate more effectively” given them more resources.

Secondly, he agreed they “need to hold developers to commitments and ensure they honour them”.

When asked by Cocking why the government doesn’t just legislate to ensure promised infrastructure is built first, before houses, Pennycook labelled this an “overly simplistic solution.”