More than a million homes were not built after planning permissions were granted in the past decade.
Some 564,600 units have been granted planning permission by councils since 2009/10 but only 1,530,680 units were completed in the same period.
The data comes from the Local Government Association, the national membership body for local authorities.
David Renard, the LGA’s housing spokesman, said: “The planning system is not a barrier to house building.
“The number of homes granted planning permission has far outpaced the number of homes being built.”
And John Healey, shadow housing secretary, said: “These figures give lie to the government’s claim that council planning departments are the problem in getting more new homes built.”
However Rico Wojtulewicz, head of housing and planning at the National Federation of Builders (NFB), said: “Cllr Renard and John Healey MP do not appear to understand the development process and their comments are deeply offensive to the 80% of small builders that over the previous 30 years have ceased trading.
“I encourage both to look into why so many local plans are allocating and granting such great numbers of undeliverable and difficult to deliver planning permissions.
“Before shovels are allowed in the ground, many developments have pre-commencement conditions to clear, contribution negotiations to conclude or major infrastructure investment to complete.
“Some permissions are outline planning applications, or are put forward by land promoters, not builders, who haven’t calculated the cost of actually building the homes.”
“Sweeping statements about undelivered homes to make a political point, ignores delivery challenges and sustains the housing crisis.”
He added that the House Builders Association lobbied for a small sites register to ensure deliverable permissions get allocated, but that proposal was rejected by the Local Government Association.
Similarly a call for more small and medium sites in local plans was rejected.
