Angela Rayner sets new housing targets in planning overhaul

Labour also plans to change how the targets are calculated, including by ditching a 35% "uplift" for the biggest urban areas introduced by Tories and tweaking how the formula accounts for housing affordability.

Official documents show the changes will mean councils overall will now have to plan for around 370,000 homes annually, instead of the current 305,000.

But some urban areas previously covered by the uplift, which are mostly Labour-run, will see their targets go down.

The annual quota for London, where the uplift currently applies to each individual borough, is set to drop from just under 99,000 homes to around 80,000.

Birmingham's target is set to drop from 7,174 to 4,974, and Coventry's will go down from 3,081 to 1,527.

Some of these councils have previously complained the uplift targets were unrealistic. Ms Rayner said London's figure would still be a "huge ask” and the previous target was "absolute nonsense”.

She admitted that some of the new targets would be "surprising" - but argued the old system had produced some “odd outcomes”.

However, the changes were criticised by shadow housing secretary and Tory leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch, who said it would result in more uncertainty.

She also argued it could force suburban and rural areas to take housing from Labour-held inner city areas.