With the need for an increase in house building reaching critical levels, the latest figures from the government show that levels have, in fact, fell in December.
The House Building in England report from the government for October to December 2013 showed that house starts were at 32,320 for those three months, 1 per cent lower than in the previous quarter.
Completions were at 28,510 in England, also representing a drop of 1 per cent.
There were a total of 109,370 houses built in 2013, a decrease of 5 per cent on the previous year and less than half of the 250,000 needed to meet the country’s housing requirement.
However, houses that were started in 2013 increased by 23 per cent last year, reaching 122,590.
Campbell Robb, CEO of housing and homelessness charity Shelter, had this to say: “What these figures really show is that we are building less than half of the 250,000 homes needed each year just to keep up with demand. With thousands of young people and families already beginning to give up hope that they will ever be able to afford a home of their own, this woeful gap between the homes we need and the homes we have spells disaster for future generations.
“Any uptick in housebuilding is to be welcomed, but we’re still nowhere near meeting our housing shortage. Building genuinely affordable homes should be the government’s chief focus, not guaranteeing mortgages the banks now consider too risky. There are already too many people chasing too few homes, and schemes like Help to Buy only raise prices further and make things worse.
“For too long politicians have been tinkering round the edges with policies that barely scratch the surface of the problem. We need big, bold solutions that will deliver the homes we need to make housing more affordable for everyone, from the thousands of people stuck on councils’ waiting lists to those left priced out of a home of their own however hard they work or save.”
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