TORY failures to increase housing stock and wages will see benefit costs soar by £1 billion over the next four years, the shadow work and pensions secretary told the GMB conference yesterday.

Speaking in Nottingham, Rachel Reeves cited new parliamentary figures which revealed that “the cost of the government’s failure to get more people earning enough to put a roof over their head is the equivalent of 24,000 more nurses or 30 million additional GP appointments.

“And we all know why this is. We have more people than ever who are working but not earning enough to pay the rent — let alone get a mortgage and we have the lowest levels of house-building since the 1920s.”