House Building Comparable's

The figure shown is an annual comparison of the level of house building compared with the same time last year.

The proposals published recently in the Housing Green Paper were widely welcomed across the housing industry. Along with £8bn of funding being made available between 2008 and 2011 for affordable housing, there were a host of initiatives and targets aimed at both increasing housing supply and improving affordability. There is no doubt that the proposed increases in housing output are steep but the question remains; can the targets be met? Perhaps the greatest joker in the pack is the housing market itself where the prospect of weaker market conditions does not bode well for the development industry and levels of housing output. Compared to previous policy announcements it is clear that few stones have been left unturned with the heavy responsibility of delivery seemingly spread right across all levels of Government.

Regional Spatial Strategies, for example, will need to identify the potential for increased housing output and it is expected that some of the extra numbers will come from the Growth Areas such as Milton Keynes and the Thames Gateway. Twenty-nine new Growth Points, with more planned, and
proposals for five new eco-towns are expected to further boost supply. Add to this extra incentives for planning authorities, a further review of the mortgage markets, the ramping up of targets for the use of public sector land via English Partnerships and Local Housing Companies, and the Government hopes it will have laid the foundations to deliver an increase in the supply of greener, better designed homes in places where they are most needed.

However, looking more closely at the proposed targets in a purely ‘market’ context they seem a pretty tall order. Especially when set against the prospect of a weaker housing market. The headline target of 240,000 additional homes a year by 2011 means that there will need to be a 30% increase from current levels of housing output over the next 5 years. The projections
for affordable housing provision require even faster growth. In 2005/06 we saw just 39,000 affordable housing completions in England which means that if we are to hit the proposed target of 70,000 completions a year by 2010/11, the output of affordable homes will need to increase by almost 80%.