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Volume housebuilders are too 鈥渃omfortable鈥� with their working patterns to embrace innovation, according to Michael Gove.

The housing secretary was appearing in front of the House of Lords鈥� built environment committee and was addressing the perceived failure of modern methods of construction (MMC) to take off in housebuilding.

Gove noted that there was currently an inquiry into housebuilding being conducted by the Competition and Markets Authority, due to publish its findings this month.

鈥淢y observation would be, without criticising the main volume housebuilders, is that they have pattern books, ways of operating with which they are comfortable, that means that some of the innovation here doesn鈥檛 perhaps have the attractions that it might,鈥� he said.

The secretary of state also said that a desire to support smaller, regional contractors was part of his reason for calling for an inquiry in the first place.

鈥淸It was] not because I wanted to kick anyone over the head, but precisely because I was concerned about the variety of factors that have led to a reduction in the number of small and medium sized enterprises,鈥� he added.

The committee recently published the findings of a short inquiry into MMC, which accused Homes England of lacking a coherent strategy and questioned why the government鈥檚 taskforce on the issue had never convened.

Regarding the taskforce, he said he did not believe it was 鈥渘ecessary鈥�, noting that there had been a succession of changes to government leadership since it was set up under Boris Johnson in March 2021.

He added that there had been increased industry leadership on the issue since then, weakening the need for the taskforce.

Asked about nutrient neutrality, Gove explained that a 鈥渃ongested King鈥檚 Speech鈥� had meant that other agendas, including renter and leaseholder reforms, had taken priority over standalone legislation to address the issue.

He spoke about the difficulty of balancing environmental protections with housing delivery but said the current application of the rules was 鈥渋nflexible鈥�.

鈥淚t hits development, and it doesn鈥檛 deal effectively with the real problem, which is with water companies and with some farming practices, but in order to get to the right outcome there it is tough going,鈥� he said.

Gove disputed the HBF鈥檚 claim that 150,000 homes were being held back by nutrient neutrality rules, saying that the department wanted to 鈥渆rr on the side of caution鈥� with its 100,000 estimate.

Later in the hearing, he suggested that the Conservative Party鈥檚 300,000-home-a-year manifesto commitment could be raised to address increased levels of net migration.

鈥淲e do recognise that most informed critics are concerned that even 300,000 new homes a year would not be enough to deal with additional development [鈥�] we cannot have levels of net migration at the levels we have had recently without such pressure on housing,鈥� he said.

鈥淚t is a live debate about whether or not in the next parliament this 300,000 figure could or should be revisited鈥�.