Labour to train 60,000 new builders to save homes plan

Rachel Reeves hopes to kickstart the economy and save Labour’s plan to build 1.5m new homes by training up to 60,000 bricklayers, electricians, engineers and carpenters over the next four years.

- KATE DEVLIN

The £600m move is designed to help fill 35,000 job vacancies in construction after warnings revealed by The Independent that the government’s flagship scheme is unachievable due to a shortage of workers.

It comes as the chancellor tries to head off criticism of her stewardship of the economy and unveils what are expected to be the deepest cuts to government departments since austerity in her spring statement on Wednesday.

Reports yesterday also suggested No 10 is set to tell the civil service to slash more than £2bn a year from its budget by the end of the decade, as part of the government’s spending review.

Yesterday, Ms Reeves warned Labour could not “tax and spend our way to higher living standards and better public services” in an interview with the BBC.

She is facing a £20bn hole in the public finances as she scrambles to meet her own fiscal rules following higher-thanexpected borrowing and disappointing economic growth.