Red Wall Tories tell Rishi Sunak to build 500,000 new homes in the North – as party battles to keep voters

RED Wall Tories have told Rishi Sunak to build half a million houses in the North – as the party battles to stop working class voters switching back to Labour.

The Northern Research Group of Conservative backbenchers even wants entire new towns springing up across the region. 

Declaring the property market as “broken”, the influential caucus eyes a Maggie-style revolution of home ownership with 500,000 fresh houses in the next parliament. 

Chairman John Stevenson is also calling on ministers to slash building red tape and better harness brownfield land.

Ahead of the NRG conference in Doncaster this week, he insisted the plan “isn’t about forcing landowners to sell or creating more rules – it’s about enabling building, boosting the economy and making the dream of homeownership a reality for more Brits.

“If we want to have the green industrial revolution across the North, which will create high quality, well-paid jobs in many of our left-behind areas, we must build, build, build!

“There’s no point creating thousands of jobs if there aren’t the houses for people to live.” 

Sir Keir Starmer has made housing a flagship issue as he attempts to claw back the Red Wall which crumbled under Jeremy Corbyn.

He has announced plans to force landowners to sell at below current rates.

The Government has set a target of building 300,000 new homes every year.

But the decision to drop local ambitions for councils has sparked anger among some Tory MPs. 

Ex-Cabinet Minister Simon Clarke has said NIMBYism could be the party’s downfall.