UK minister insists Tories will meet pledge to build a million homes despite ‘shortfall’

LONDON — The Conservatives can still live up to their 2019 manifesto promise to build a million new homes in the U.K. by the end of the parliament, Britain’s housing minister has insisted, even with the clock ticking as an election looms. Speaking at a POLITICO Live event on the U.K.’s housing crisis, Conservative Lee Rowley — who has been in post only three weeks after years of churn in the policy brief — acknowledged it was “absolutely the case that we have a shortfall in terms of number of houses compared to how populations have grown” in the U.K. But he struck a bullish tone on the Tories’ headline target, saying:”We’re going to get to a million homes at…