Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis announced that there were 36,230 new housing starts between April and June, bringing the total number of starts over the last 12 months to 137,780, a 22% increase on the previous year and the highest level of house building since 2007.
He pointed out that government efforts to help people onto the housing market are working with almost 40,000 households have bought a home through Help to Buy, with over 80% of sales going to first time buyers purchasing new build homes.
He said that the direct result is a new generation of home owners and a 34% increase in private house building during the first year of the scheme.
At the same time the construction sector has been growing for 15 consecutive months, and is currently experiencing the sharpest rise in house building orders since 2003, while companies are taking on new workers at the fastest rate since 1997.
He also pointed out that a growing pipeline of new projects is also emerging from the reformed planning system. Last year successful applications for major housing schemes were up 23%, and planning permissions were granted for 216,000 new homes.
Also published were the latest figures for Right to Buy, which allows people to buy their council homes. In the second quarter some 2,845 council owned properties were sold, a 31% increase on the same quarter last year, and bringing the overall number of homes sold under the reinvigorated Right to Buy to nearly 22,500.
Receipts from additional sales are now being recycled into building new affordable homes. In the last quarter councils received £211 million, and started work on 675 new homes, bringing the total number of replacement homes started to almost 3,700. More than 480,000 new homes have now been delivered since July 2010, including almost 200,000 affordable homes.
‘Wherever you look across the housing market, the signs of progress are clear. House building in England is up by over a fifth compared to last year, orders for building materials are rising at the quickest pace for 11 years, and companies are hiring new staff at the fastest rate since 1997. Hardworking tenants are also voting with their feet and taking up the Right to Buy,’ said Lewis.
‘This progress did not happen by accident. It bears testament to our efforts to reform the planning system and help home buyers while paving the way for house builders to boost their output. But there’s still more to do, and improving the housing market will remain a vital part of our long term economic plan,’ he added.
However, some property industry experts are pointing out that this is still nowhere near the number of new homes that are needed. ‘The tide is gradually moving in the right direction but the UK property industry can’t forever compare itself against the benchmark of its deepest troughs. We still need to provide twice as many homes again every year,’ said Duncan Kreeger, director of lender West One Loans.
He pointed out that while planning changes and getting projects flowing are welcome policies, a bigger problem is that house builders are completing current projects first before starting on new sites.
‘For the required numbers of homes we’ve got to get started right away, as soon as sites become available. Greater resourcefulness is critical too. Converting and refurbishing is often easier and more profitable than the painstaking work of ground-up development,’ he explained.
‘Here, finance matters as much as the supply of bricks and cement. Lenders who have learnt the lessons of the financial crisis must embrace the real challenge of providing more places to live, not just extending bigger mortgages. Otherwise we will be living with the credit crunch for ever,’ he added.
