Housing: Construction

(asked on 2nd July 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many housing starts there were in 2013-14; and what recent forecast he has made of the likely number of housing starts in 2014-15.


Answered by
 Portrait
Kris Hopkins
This question was answered on 7th July 2014

Thanks to this Government's long-term economic plan, housing starts in England are at their highest since 2007 and new orders in residential construction have risen to their highest level since 2007.

According to the NHBC, new home registrations rose by 30% in 2013 in England, the highest since 2007; and are up 60% in London, the highest for over two decades; this is in contrast to Wales which has a Labour Administration, where new home registrations are falling.

More detailed statistics on house building starts can be found on my Department's website, in live table 208: www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-house-building

My Department does not publish forecasts or targets for overall house building.

I am aware there have been recent media reports which have given a misleading impression on starts in 2014-15. I would note the following in response:

We anticipate in 2014-15 that housing completions will continue to rise as will private sector housing starts. Our planning reforms are also helping increase housing supply by supporting conversions to housing from previous uses.

We are conscious that there is a potential risk of a hiatus between the completion of our 2011-15 Affordable Housing Programme which is on course to deliver 170,000 new affordable homes and our 2015-18 Affordable Housing Programme which will deliver a further 165,000 new affordable homes (the fastest rate of affordable house building for 20 years).

Hence, we are reviewing what practical steps can be taken to prevent this, such as bringing forward the affordable housing programme and accelerating starts on sites in other government programmes. This common sense forward planning will help further support the new homes that our country needs.

Reticulating Splines