Michael Gove says Tories no longer committed to manifesto target of 300,000 new homes a year – UK politics live

Good morning. Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, was let out for the morning interview round earlier and he in effect ripped up a target in the Conservative party’s 2019 manifesto for 300,000 new homes to be built a year by the middle of this decade.

The manifesto said:

Since 2010 there has been a considerable increase in homebuilding. We have delivered a million homes in the last five years in England: last year, we delivered the highest number of homes for almost 30 years.

But it still isn’t enough. That is why we will continue our progress towards our target of 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.

After Gove took over the housing department, which is now the levelling up department, he abandoned proposals to reform planning laws that would have made it harder for local authorities to reject new housing developments. (Tory MPs hated them.) Today he is publishing a levelling up and regeneration bill which includes some, more modest changes to planning rules, with the focus instead on giving communities more say on new houses in their area.

In an interview with Mishal Husain on the Today programme, asked if the government was still committed to the target of 300,000 new homes per year, Gove resorted to Greek mythology in a roundabout answer which amounted to saying “No”. He replied:

We’re going to do everything we can in order to ensure that more of the right homes are built in the right way in the right places. Because I don’t want us to be tied to a Procrustean bed. I think it’s critically important that, even as we seek to improve housing supply, we also seek to build communities that people love and are proud of.

Husain pointed out that this was a pledge. “Are you going to meet it?,” she asked. Gove replied:

Well, we’ll do everything we can but it’s no kind of success simply to hit a target if the homes that are built are shoddy, in the wrong place, don’t have the infrastructure required and are not contributing to beautiful communities.

Ultimately, when you’re building a new dwelling, you’re not simply trying to hit a statistical target. I’m certainly not.

When Husain pointed out that the Tories actually promised to hit a statistical target, Gove replied:

Well, it’s only one of a number of things that we need to do. We are not bound – I am not bound – by one criterion alone when it comes to development. Arithmetic is important, but so is beauty, so is belonging, so is democracy.

I will post more from Gove’s interviews shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

10am: Tom Pursglove, minister for tackling illegal migration, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee on the plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

12.30pm: Priti Patel, the home secretary, and Yvette Cooper, her Labour shadow, are due to speak at the opening of today’s Queen’s speech debate, which will focus on crime. There is no PMQs today because PMQs do not resume at the start of a parliamentary session until the Queen’s speech debate is over.

2.30pm: Victoria Prentis, the farming minister, gives evidence to the environment committee on the trade deal with Australia.

3pm: Lady Falkner, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and other experts give evidence to the joint committee on human rights on reform of the Human Rights Act.

And Boris Johnson is visiting Sweden and Finland today. He is due to hold press conferences in both countries.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com.