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The prime minister said his decision to effectively ditch local housing targets was taken after 鈥渢housands鈥� of Conservative councillors and activists raised concerns.

Rishi Sunak, in an interview with the Conservative Home website yesterday, said he spent last summer speaking to party members when on the leadership election campaign trail.

He said: 鈥淲hat I heard consistently, particularly from our councillors and our members, was what they didn鈥檛 want was a nationally-imposed top-down set of targets telling them what to do.

鈥淭hat it [the imposition of top-down targets] wasn鈥檛 a particularly Conservative thing to do and doesn鈥檛 recognise that all parts of our country are different.鈥�

Sunak said he spoke to 鈥渢housands and thousands鈥� of Conservative members and 鈥渉eard the same message from all of them鈥�.

He added: 鈥淲e do want to build the right homes and the right number of homes and build them in the right places and in the right way. And that means we do need to put local people at the heart of that process and that鈥檚 why strengthening local plans is so important.鈥�

 Watch the interview  below (the comments on housing are from the 10min mark onwards)

Housing secretary to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill which would give councils flexibility to depart from housing targets. Instead of being calculated through a central formula, from which councils can only depart with strong reasons, the targets would instead become merely an advisory 鈥渟tarting point鈥� . The move was a compromise after 50 MPs backed calls for the scrapping of targets altogether.

Sunak said he believes the new-look planning system proposed by the government will be 鈥渟triking the right balance鈥� .

In addition to the weakening of local housing targets, the government is also proposing dropping the requirement to review green belt land in order to deliver a local area鈥檚 housing need as well as removing the duty to co-operate between authorities to deliver housing targets. It has also set out of a whole raft of other reasons why authorities might be able to justify not meeting the housing numbers produced by the government鈥檚 鈥渟tandard method鈥� formula.

The uncertainty around the changes has led to , prompting concerns of a drop in housing delivery.

The proposed changes have also met opposition from figures who believe the government should be doing more to support the housebuiding industry.

Steve Morgan, the founder of Redrow and a past Conservative donor told 好色先生TV last month that 鈥渢here鈥檚 no help from the government鈥� for the industry, pointing to the planning changes and regulation on nutrients. He added: 鈥淚t鈥檚 almost like the government wants to destroy the industry.鈥�