Susanna Reid issued a brutal verdict on GMB (Image: ITV)

ITV’s flagship morning programme Good Morning Britain turned tense as hosts Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley grilled Labour housing secretary Steve Reed on his plans to speed up planning applications in an effort to get more affordable housing built in Britain. The anchors questioned Reed on a planning scandal in Wigan, Greater Manchester, which saw huge warehouses built at the bottom of residential gardens.

Residents have now alleged they were not properly consulted during the planning process, and are campaigning for a judicial review to have the warehouses knocked down. When Reed was questioned on how his plans for law changes will affect projects like that in future, he insisted that only applications that “would have got through anyway” will be sped up.

“What we’re facing in this country, and many of your viewers will know this, we’ve got a housing crisis. We’ve got young people that can’t afford to get their foot on the housing ladder for the first time and the majority of young people now in their 20s and early 30s live at home with mum and dad.

“The reason that housing is so expensive is we’ve not been building enough for years and years and years. We’ve got legislation going through Parliament now which is going to speed up the planning process, but I want to go even further than that, so we’re bringing forward some more changes.

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Steve Reed MP appeared via video link (Image: ITV)

“50% of all housing applications that councils reject get overturned in the courts on appeal. That means delays of several years for homes that could always have gone ahead in the first place.

“We’re changing the law so that I can stop councils from taking unwarranted decisions about house building that will eventually be allowed to go ahead so that we can make it happen much faster.”

By the end of the segment, Susanna left the MP speechless as she delivered a brutal seven-word verdict, admitting she is “not sure how much consolation that is” to the people of Hindley in Wigan – but the interview was cut off before Reed could give a response.