<p>Conservative shadow housing minister Grant Shapps has aired his frustration over the government’s housebuilding package. “It’s time the government admits it has let down hard working families across the country and failed first time buyers and that instead of relying on headlines and spin it needs to follow our lead and put in place policies that will actually help the market,” the minister said in an exclusive Housebuilder interview. The Conservative party pledged to remove stamp duty on homes for first time buyers at its autumn conference last year, almost 12 months before Labour finally revealed its stamp duty plan. </p> <p>But Shapps said that the Tories planned to raise the threshold to £250,000, rather than the £175,000 actioned by Labour. The Conservatives would recoup the fall in revenue by raising taxes on wealthy non-domiciled residents. It would also scrap the controversial home information packs (HIPs). Shapps also criticised Labour’s target driven mentality for housebuilding, clearly baffled by its figures: “Just like the former Soviet union’s 15-year plans for manufacturing tractors in the Ukraine, this government appears bizarrely wedded to the idea of targets. Where does the 3 million figure come from? I [also] think that the target of 50% …