New data has revealed that net additions to England’s housing supply have declined for the third year in a row, prompting concerns from both MPs and the industry about the Government’s ability to meet its own housebuilding targets.
The data, published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, showed net additions to housing supply were at the lowest level since 2015/16.
It has led some to maintain that the Government’s shortfall to its 1.5 million homes promise is ‘becoming increasingly self-inflicted’.
Meanwhile, Florence Eshalomi, Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Committee said it was time for ministers to ramp up the pace of delivery.
The statistics show that only 208,600 new homes were delivered in the year to March 2025, continuing over a decade of failure to build anything like the homes we need.
“The Government must be focused on getting to grips with this crisis and bring forward the delayed Long-Term Housing Strategy, which has been promised for over a year now,” said Florence Eshalomi MP. “It must set out how we can ramp up the pace of housing delivery with practical reforms to build 1.5 million homes during this Parliament.
“Given the scale of the crisis, I hope the Chancellor will use next week’s Budget to boost the housing sector, support councils and the New Towns programme, and help deliver the billions of pounds of public and private investment needed to meet the Government’s housing ambitions.”
Dr David Crosthwaite, chief economist at BCIS, said the latest figures underline the scale of the challenge facing the government.
“With net additions falling for the third consecutive year, delivery is moving further away from where it needs to be,” he continued.
“On the current trajectory, we are looking at something closer to 1 million homes over the Parliament, rather than the 1.5 million that has been promised.
“The estimate that 124,800 net additions have been delivered so far this financial year would put England on course for roughly 204,000 homes in 2025/26 (seasonal differences excepted), which is further evidence that not enough is happening on the ground to change the direction of travel.
“This is a self-imposed target, and the emerging shortfall is becoming increasingly self-inflicted.
“The longer it takes for demand to stimulate housebuilding beyond current suppressed levels, the larger the delivery burden becomes later in the Parliament, and it is nigh on impossible to see how those numbers could realistically be achieved.”
