The review, commissioned by the National Statistician Jil Mathewson, said that the index should be accompanied by a regular official statistics report that analyses official house price measures and their relationship to unofficial sources and other housing market indicators.
Matheson, said: “There is a great deal of interest in and importance placed on changes in the value of our houses by all sections of society. I want to be sure that official statistics producers are providing the right statistics on house prices to support decision making by us all.”
The review was conducted following concerns about the coverage, clarity and comparability of official housing statistics produced by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and Land Registry.
The DCLG and Land Registry will now work together to investigate how to produce a definitive set of house price stats in the future that combine the headline house price index and other price indicators.
As part of the review, feedback was gathered from official house price stats users, including central and local government, financial institutions, housing market analysts, business users and academics.
The National Statistician is now looking for further comment on the future strategy for official house price stats by the end of February 2011. These can be emailed to nsoffice.enquiries@statistics.gov.uk.
