UK delays vote on housing legislation after lawmakers threaten rebellion

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s government has delayed a parliamentary vote on its housebuilding plans after dozens of its Conservative lawmakers signalled they wanted to change sections of it, in the first threat of rebellion against Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

A vote scheduled for Monday on the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill will no longer go ahead, a government source said on Tuesday, adding no new date had been set and that the delay was due to a busy parliamentary timetable.

The legislation, aimed at boosting housing and infrastructure, faces opposition by 47 lawmakers from Sunak’s party who have filed an amendment, or proposed change, to it. They want to end mandatory housebuilding targets for local authorities.

The government is expected to speak to lawmakers to try to find a compromise over the bill. Sunak’s Downing Street office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Housing has been a fractious issue in Britain and successive Conservative governments have promised to build 300,000 more homes a year by the mid-2020s, but some lawmakers from the party have argued for more local authority over housebuilding.

(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar and Elizabeth Piper, Editing by William Maclean)