WILTSHIRE'S Countryside charity has welcomed Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying 

that "he cannot give a cast-iron guarantee to build 300,000 homes a year."

It comes as Mr Johnson confirmed plans to extend the right to buy to tenants of housing association homes.

He said there are 2.5 million households whose homes belong to associations, saying “they’re trapped, they can’t buy, they don’t have the security of ownership, they can’t treat their home as their own or make the improvements that they want”.

“So, it’s time for change. Over the coming months we will work with the sector to bring forward a new right-to-buy scheme,” he said.

Mr Johnson added that it would give “millions” more the chance to own their own home and would see “one-for-one replacement of each social housing property sold” while being affordable within existing spending plans.

But, when asked by Darren McCaffrey, the Political Editor at GB News, if he could give a "cast-iron guarantee" that the government will build 300,000 homes a year by the middle of this decade - a Conservative manifesto commitment in 2019 - Mr Johnson said: "I cannot give you a cast-iron guarantee that we will get to a number in a particular year, but what I can point you to the is record of delivery under Conservative government."

He added: "Clearly you have got to make sure that you are not building everywhere on precious greenbelt land, and that you are taking care of the natural world."

The Prime Minister also said that we as a country are "sensitive to development that isn't in the right place, and that is perfectly reasonable".

Anne Henshaw, chair of CPRE Wiltshire said she was "happy to hear that the Prime Minister cannot give a cast-iron guarantee to build 300,000 homes a year."

Anne said: "Housing strategy isn't about meeting an arbitrary number which would just see our green spaces turned into identikit executive homes, it's about working with local communities to meet housing needs in a way which young families in rural communities can afford and without destroying green spaces.

"As far as broken policy promises go, I am sure I won't be the only one to cheer if this one fails."

To watch the speech in full, click here.