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Jenrick hails housing supply stats indicating 20-year high in completions
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick has hailed new figures that indicate housebuilding completions hit a 20-year high in the first three months of 2021.
Statistics on building control estimates of housing supply in England published yesterday show that 49,470 new homes were completed from January to March – the highest quarterly figure since the seasonally adjusted data was first compiled in 2000.
It is also a 4% increase compared with the 46,950 estimated for last three months of 2020.
Starts also rose according to the figures, up 7% on the previous quarter to 46,010 in the first three months of 2021 – the highest number since early 2007.
Recorded housing association starts jumped 12% to 8,223, surpassing 8,000 for the first time since the seasonally adjusted quarterly data series began.
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Mr Jenrick said: “It is encouraging to see a continued rise in the number of new homes being built.
“The housebuilding sector has shown extraordinary resilience and the government has continued to demonstrate its support for the industry throughout the pandemic.
“By enabling construction sites to remain open and operate safely, builders have been able deliver the homes this country needs as we build back better from the pandemic.”
Housebuilding temporarily ground to a halt last spring as the coronavirus pandemic hit the UK, but ministers in England pushed for construction sites to stay open and introduced flexible site working hours and extended some planning permissions.
After a sharp drop between April and June last year, starts and completions have recovered and now exceed 2019 levels.
The government also highlighted that the new figures indicate that 81% of new build homes in 2020/21 were houses as opposed to flats – the highest proportion since 2000/01.
The statistics are submitted to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) by council building control departments and other private approved inspectors and are intended to show trends in new housing supply.
MHCLG publishes the most comprehensive statistics on housebuilding showing net additions to England’s housing stock yearly in November.
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