House building bonanza sees million homes built in 5 years
A BUILDING boom has driven up the number of new homes to the highest level in 30 years.
More than a million have now been added to the housing stock in the past five years.
And what amounts to a 93 per cent increase in the last six years is fuelling a massive economic and social boost, building bosses say.
The houses and flats built in the last year in England have sustained 770,000 jobs, compared with 42,000 in 2012-13.
Their construction has delivered £42billion of economic activity, which is up £19billion in the last six years.
This has generated an investment of over £6.9billion in new affordable housing and delivered over £200million spending on new and improved schools.
There were 241,130 extra homes last year, of which 214,000 were newbuild completions – the highest number since records began in 1991-92.
Shortage
This beat the previous high of 223,530 in 2007-08, prior to the financial crash.
It means the Government is on track to meet its target of a million new homes between 2015 and 2020, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Stewart Baseley, executive chairman of the Home Builders Federation, said: “Alongside much needed homes, the increases are boosting local economies up and down the country, creating tens of thousands of new jobs and delivering much needed investment in infrastructure.
“Politicians need to continue to work with us and develop policies that enable further increases to be delivered.
“Those policies should ensure buyers can buy and that enough land comes forward in the right places quickly and efficiently.”
He also called for more support for smaller builders and specialist suppliers “to ensure the supply base continues to grow”.
Data from the HBF and market analysts Glenigan suggests these increases in house supply will continue.
The latest Housing Pipeline report shows almost 380,000 planning approvals were given in England in the year to June, which should be built over the next three or four years.
Chris Sykes, a mortgage consultant at broker Private Finance, said: “Any boost in supply will be welcomed by home-buyers, who are already experiencing more favourable conditions thanks to a slowdown in price growth and record low mortgage rates.”
Vadim Toader, founder of Proportunity, a lender of Help to Buystyle loans, said: “Britain’s failure to build enough homes for the past few decades is a key factor behind the affordability issues we face so today’s figures showing house building is at a record high are welcome news.”
However Michael Stone, boss of new homes builder Stone Real Estate, sounded a note of caution.
He said that “we are still an annual 87,000 new homes short of the Government’s own new-build target.
“An archaic and overly democratic planning system, an overly precious approach to the less desirable parts of our green belt, and a seeming apathy from the Government on solving the issue, all contribute to a net deficit in terms of the housing we need.”