Hammered Big fall in number of new homes being built

FEWER than two new council homes were started every day in the first three months of this year. Government figures out yesterday showed building began on only 160 local authority properties across the whole of England between January and March.

The number of housing association homes built also fell 14%, to 5,230. The drop comes despite Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May’s promise to kickstart a council house building blitz.

The overall number of homes being built in England fell to 39,350 in the three months to March. The number completed was also down, despite a chronic housing shortage.

The drop was blamed in large part on severe weather at the end of winter which forced house builders to down tools.

Work began on 33,960 private homes in the first three months of 2018, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

The slow start to the year will make it even harder for the Government to reach its target of building 300,000 homes a year in England.

The period from 1946 through to the 1980s saw a boom in council house building. But that changed with the growth in housing associations, which coincided with Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy scheme.

John Healey MP, Labour’s Shadow Housing Secretary, said: “Theresa May has made housing her personal mission, yet these dreadfully disappointing figures show that the number of new homes being built has fallen on her watch.

“We are now well on our way to a lost decade of low house building under the Conservatives, with house building still far lower than under Labour almost 10 years on from the depths of the global financial crisis.”

Trade body the Home Builders Federation questioned the reliability of yesterday’s data. A spokesman added: “We have seen a massive 74% increase in housing supply in recent years ( from 124,720 in 2012-13 to 217,350 in 201617) and the industry is totally committed to going further and building even more homes moving forward.”