Sir Keir Starmer has broken cover on planning. In perhaps his most daring policy announcement so far, he has declared his intention to overhaul the planning system to free up more housing. When pressed on the morning media round he was clear – he would take the fight to NIMBYs and wouldn’t yield to backbenchers about developments in their patch. Labour, he said, would be on the side of the ‘builders not the blockers’.

The discussion around planning has gradually broken away from interest groups and into the mainstream – and the Labour leader wants to make it a focus of the next election

It is a bold move, but one which shows the shifting sands of the politics of housing. Until recently, rising house prices were something governments boasted about, a sign of prosperity for middle England. Anything that threatened that, including development in local fields, was something to be campaigned against and blocked. Now, the narrative has flipped.

The cost of housing has become a mainstream concern, at least for anyone under the age of 40. Prices in London have become prohibitive for even the highest earners, and the problem is spreading. Across the southeast, and in cities across the country, wages have flatlined while property prices have soared, leaving many in adequate accommodation. For those stuck in the rental market the situation is often worse, with landlords who are ambivalent about their responsibilities raking it in and tenants pushed into frequent and costly moves.

The Tories, once the party of home ownership, have failed to fix this. Any attempt to liberalise planning has been met with backbench rebellion. Even Liz Truss’s free-market, supply-side insurgency saw housing targets as the enemy, pledging to scrap national targets which forced local authorities to permit development. It was a policy that Sunak was forced to keep, even though Tory-leaning thinktanks warned him that it would make the housing situation worse.

Starmer’s announcement shows he wants to fight the Tories on this. The discussion around planning has gradually broken away from interest groups and into the mainstream – and the Labour leader wants to make it a focus of the next election. Played well, it could be a real boon for his campaign. It is an area where the Tories have failed to deliver on their rhetoric and which vast swathes of the country feels in their pocket. Equally, he has more room to alienate the NIMBYs.

The Conservatives struggle to achieve anything on housing because their biggest supporters are older homeowners in the suburban fringe. These people wince at the thought of the bulldozers rolling out and as homeowners have no real interest in stemming rising house prices. The also tend to vote Tory. Labour, Starmer reckons, can probably do without them, instead relying on the votes of the young who want to own a home.

He will still have to negotiate some internal opposition. Many in Labour’s ranks are suspicious of property developers and dispute the link between supply of houses and costs. Others see the rollout of private housing as second-best to building more social housing. Labour MPs are often as likely to be swayed by local self-interest as other parties – but Starmer seems determined to bulldoze through all of this.

Now the Tories are stuck in an invidious trap. Any steps to liberalise planning going into the next election could start to cost them in the seats that mean the difference between defeat and oblivion, yet it will be hard to be credible to any younger voters without a serious offering on it. In the long term, it’s hard to see how the Tories remain a potent political force if homeownership becomes impossible for people born in the 90s or later.

The party has had a dozen years in government to find an answer on this and has failed. Housing targets have been missed, developments blocked, and prices have soared. Anything they say about building now will be met with scepticism, giving Starmer a huge advantage if this becomes a key battleground.

The Labour leader’s announcement makes that more likely. It also shows a braver side of Starmer as we move towards the election. He is choosing to spear the Conservatives on an issue he knows they have little room to manoeuvre on and challenging for their mantle as the party of homeownership. More than that, however, he seems to do it in a way that acknowledges and accepts the political risk. All of this suggests he’s confident that his own next home will be on Downing Street.