<p>The prime minister has said he dropped local housing targets after “thousands” of Conservative members, councillors and activists voiced concerns over them, with top-down numbers being “unconservative”.</p> <p>In an interview with the Conservative Home website, Rishi Sunak stated that the Conservative party would “continue to be incredibly supportive” of home ownership. </p> <p>But he added that when speaking to Conservative members and councillors last summer about the planning system as part of his leadership campaign, he heard “consistently” that “what they didn’t want was a nationally imposed, top-down set of targets telling them what to do. That wasn’t a particularly Conservative thing to do”.</p> <p>Sunak explained that the housing target approach did not recognise differences in need across the country. “I said I’d make sure our planning system reflected that[local differences].” This also included protecting areas of natural beauty and the greenbelt, he stated.</p> <p>When challenged on abolishing targets during the interview, with the influence of backbenchers highlighted, Sunak pointed out that “thousands of our members, activists and councillors” had all expressed the same opinion. “I don’t think there was support for a system that imposed top-down housing targets without an understanding of local circumstances,” he said.</p> <p>Defending the decision, …