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Net housing additions edge up to 222,000
A net total of 222,190 additional homes were delivered in 2017/18, official statistics show.
It marks a 2% increase on the 217,350 achieved in 2016/17.
The increase, revealed by statistics on net additional dwellings published today, would put the government well on track to meet its previous target of a million new homes between 2015 and 2020.
Under this target, the country would need to see 371,000 dwellings added in the next two years.
That target, unveiled by David Cameron and then-housing minister Brandon Lewis in September 2015, was originally set for May 2020 – but the end date was later shifted to the end of the year.
However, the Conservative Party later promised 1.5 million new homes by 2022 ahead of the 2017 general election – while ministers currently say they want to see Britain delivering 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.
Housebuilding will need to accelerate considerably on the current rate if that target is to be achieved.
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Communities secretary James Brokenshire said: “Today’s figures are great news and show another yearly increase in the number of new homes delivered, but we are determined to do more to keep us on track to deliver the homes communities need.
“That’s why we have set out an ambitious package of measures to deliver 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s. This includes over £44bn investment, rewriting the planning rules and scrapping the borrowing cap so councils can deliver a new generation of council housing.”
Prime minister Theresa May has said that building enough homes is her number one domestic priority.
The figures for 2016/17 – which represented a 15% rise on the previous year – were welcomed triumphantly by government.
The latest additions are the second highest since records began in 1991/92, with a peak of 223,530 in 2007/08.
New builds accounted for 195,290 of additional homes in 2017/18, offset by 8,050 demolitions.
Conversions from non-residential buildings made up 29,720 additional homes, with 13,526 of these delivered through permitted development rights – which means they did not have to gain full planning permission.
Another 4,550 were delivered through houses being converted into flats, while 680 were “other gains” such as caravans and house boats.
The statistics do not provide a breakdown by tenure, but are “the primary and most comprehensive measure of housing supply”, according to the data release.
Cornwall was the council which delivered most additional homes at 3,427.
Vale of White Horse, Uttlesford and Daventry had the top three net addition rates per 1,000 dwellings.
London saw that 12 out of 33 boroughs showed some level of increase compared with last year, while 21 boroughs showed a drop on last year’s numbers.
Update: at 11.20am 15/11/18 comments from James Brokenshire and Melanie Rees was added to the story.
