Planning permission to build new homes at six year high
12/09/2014
The number of new homes being built could be set to grow even further, as it was revealed that planning permission to build new homes hit a six year high in the second quarter of 2014.
The figures, which were published in the Home Builders Federation (HBF) Housing Pipeline report showed that planning permission for 56,647 homes was granted in England during this time period.
This means that a total of 197,325 potential homes were been approved by local authorities in the first six months of the year, a level that hasn’t been recorded since 2008.
It is believed that one of the major factors in the growing housing construction industry is the success to the Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme. The scheme has created a large demand for newly built homes, meaning that construction companies have been able to increase their production levels.
Falling number of plots with planning permission
Whilst the number of new homes being approved has increased, it appears that the number of plots for new homes is still lower than levels recorded six years ago.
In the second quarter of 2007/08, there were over 1,000 plots granted planning permission to build homes on, yet there were only 715 this year.
Considering that planning permission for new homes has increased, the lower level of plots suggests that it is bigger sites that are driving the market.
Whilst this is good news for the short to medium-term, there remains a need for smaller sites to be built on in order to provide long-term, sustainable growth.
Speaking about the newly released figures, Stewart Baseley, Executive Chairman of the HBF said:
“Everyone is agreed that we need to dramatically increase house building to address our housing crisis and so getting more planning permissions is imperative. The comparatively low number of actual sites getting permissions is concerning. We need to see work underway on more sites if the overall number of new homes being built is to continue to increase.”
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