Housing supply falls for third year in a row

Thursday, 3 November 2011 9:19 AM

The supply of new homes in England fell six per cent in 2010/11 after a 23 per cent fall the previous year.

New figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) show there were 121,200 net additions – new build plus conversions and changes of use minus demolitions.

That is about half the number that housing experts say is required to meet existing demand and the needs of a growing population.

Net additions rose for six years in a row to peak at 207,370 in 2007/08 but in the wake of the credit crunch they have fallen 41 per cent in the last three years.

London saw the largest decrease in new additions with a 27 per cent fall to just 17,830 homes in 2010/11 followed by the North West with a 16 per cent fall.

The North East had the biggest increase (26 per cent) followed by the East of England (five per cent).

Housing minister Grant Shapps told Inside Housing magazine: “We’re already taking radical action to turn the tide, and will shortly publish a housing strategy outlining both the measures we’re already taking and some new moves we’ll make to get Britain building again.”

Shapps' position was criticised by Jack Dromey, Labour's shadow housing minister, who suggested he had failed to deliver on his promise to build new homes.

Dromey said: "We need urgent action now to tackle the housing crisis. The government should act, therefore, on Labour’s call to repeat the tax on bankers’ bonuses to kick-start an affordable housing programme which would get builders back into work, create apprenticeships for young people and deliver 25,000 new affordable homes."

The British Property Federation (BPF) welcomed the DCLG findings and called for a "new model" to replace "non-existent" regeneration in most of the country.

Liz Peace, chief executive of the BPF, said: “Cutbacks in public spending mean the days of large injections of public money to get regeneration projects off the ground are over. This doesn’t mean regeneration has to grind to a halt though; TIF could unlock many stalled schemes where funding cannot be found from public or private, sources."

Want to be the first to know when we break a story? Follow @AboutProperty on Twitter and subscribe to our free weekly newsletter. 

Tags:
• new builds