Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an estimate of the average time since planning was granted for house building starts in each of the last five years.

The Department does not collect data on the time taken between the granting of planning permission for a residential development and the start of housebuilding within the development.

The information that the Department routinely collects on house building starts does not include the date on which planning permission for the development was granted.