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Rising planning permissions puts London housing target within reach

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  • 03/07/2015
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The number of homes given planning permission in London since the end of 2014 has brought official housing targets within touching distance, findings published by Stirling Ackroyd show.

Homes given permission have accelerated by 73% in Q1 since the end of 2014, almost 20,000 more homes than the equivalent rate of approvals in the previous quarter.

According to the study of all planning applications decided across London, 11,870 homes were given planning permission across 1,553 separate sites. The approvals represent 82% of the 14,400 total homes applied for in Q1.

Such growth means homes are now receiving the go-ahead fast enough to hit official City Hall and government targets of 40,000 new homes a year for the capital, Stirling Ackroyd said.

However, the research pointed out that as the figures represented an acceleration in permissions rather than the final stages of the house building process, the number of finished homes may be smaller than expected. But this has been rising steadily since Q3 2015, with 5,420 completions in Q1 of this year rising by 29% on the previous quarter.

While the number of new housing starts in Q1 stood at 38,200, just under the government housing target, the figure is up 54% compared to the number of starts in the same quarter last year.

Andrew Bridges, managing director of Stirling Ackroyd, said: “Things are finally going in the right direction, yet in fact, government targets may not be set high enough. Our analysis shows London needs to build an average of 57,000 new homes a year just to cope with expected population growth over the next decade.

“That means astronomical improvements in approvals and building starts need to be sustained, and even improved upon, for the next three quarters just to meet what’s needed this year. So Londoners should hope this is more than a brief alignment of the stars, and any complacency now would be a mistake.”

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