Mortgage News
Housing crisis deepens as planning permissions plummet
Britain’s housing crisis is set to deepen following a further slump in planning permissions, the Home Builders Federation (HBF) warned today.
Its latest figures showed that just 25,171 residential planning permissions were granted in England during Q2 2011.
This was the second lowest number of permissions granted in a quarter in the last five years.
The HBF said that the level of approvals suggests the UK is on course to build less than half of the 240,000 homes needed each year to meet shortfalls.
The Federation was stark in its warning that the social effects of the under-supply of homes could be dire.
It predicted that millions of people will end up languishing on local authority waiting lists, millions more will face living in over-crowded and sub-standard accommodation, and there will be fewer first-time buyers.
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Stewart Baseley, chairman of the HBF, said: “These new figures paint a bleak picture. We already have an acute housing crisis that is affecting the quality of life of families, young and old, across the country and the economy.
“Today’s extremely low levels of permissions will only make things worse in the short term.”
He said:”The figures clearly reveal that, while the debate about planning is currently being hijacked by irresponsible scaremongering from anti-growth groups, our housing crisis is set to worsen.
“Government must stand firm and deliver a planning system that supports home building and economic growth. If it doesn’t, the social and economic implications will be felt for generations.”
James Abraham, economist at Glenigan, provider of construction project sales leads, said: “Planning approvals have been on a downward trend for eighteen months, and this continued over the second quarter of 2011. Although there was a pickup at the beginning of the year, the number of housing approvals has dropped to the lowest level in two years.
“The 29,100 units approved represented a 26% annual decline, and is less than half the number of houses approved on average per quarter in the years before the credit crunch.”