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Housebuilding in England jumped in the second quarter of 2023 as builders fast-tracked projects to avoid tougher energy performance standards, according to official data published on Thursday.
The number of dwellings in England where building work had started on site rose to 67,600 between April 1 and June 30, the UK housing department said. That is a rise of 75 per cent from the previous quarter and an increase of one-third compared with the same period in 2022.
New building regulatory standards came into force in England on June 15 relating to energy performance and electric vehicle charging points, but the changes do not apply to building work that began before that date.
The government said the “unusually high peak in starts” was because “many housebuilders may have chosen to bring forward the start of project works to avoid the costs of complying with these new standards”.
But analysts warned that the increase would not address the lack of housing in England, with the number of new homes built falling short of the government’s annual target of 300,000 for the past 15 years, according to the House of Commons Library.
James Barton, head of City & East Land at property consultancy Knight Frank, said the surge would not “ease the housing shortage” because of the “prolific undersupply of housing for many years”.
“That is creating barriers to entry for the early stages of home ownership, such as first-time buyers and young second-time movers,” he added.
Myron Jobson, analyst at investment platform Interactive Investor, said the data also raised questions about “the quality of the new builds”.
“There is still a great number of people living in unsuitable accommodation, and affordability pressures can prevent people accessing the housing they need,” he added.
Thursday’s data also showed that the number of dwellings completed between April and June fell by an annual rate of 12 per cent to 39,600 — 18 per cent lower than a recent peak in March 2021.
In their 2019 election manifestos, all the main political parties promised to boost housing supply in England.
Earlier this month, government plans to dilute rules on water pollution in order to enable more housebuilding were defeated in the House of Lords.
Meanwhile, Labour officials told the Financial Times in May that it was drawing up plans that would force landowners to sell plots for a fraction of their potential market price in an effort to cut home-building costs in England.
The lack of housing relative to demand has kept house prices high even as mortgage costs have risen sharply over the past year. It also contributed to the fastest pace of UK rental prices on record in the year to August.
