In an investigation conducted by the BBC’s Inside Out programme, minister for communities and local government Brandon Lewis, said the government aimed to see one million homes built over the current parliament to tackle a ‘decades-old deficit’.
However, government figures published last month showed that while the number of new homes built in the past 12 months has increased since last year, the total has still failed to meet the 275,000 annual target.
In its investigation, the BBC cited National Housing Federation estimates which said 974,000 homes were needed between 2011 and 2014. However, local council data showed that of 326 councils, just 457,490 were built.
Furthermore, a report by Lloyds Bank’s commercial arm warned that an acute skills shortage within the housebuilding industry combined with a protracted planning system was holding back efforts to tackle the housing crisis.
The report, which surveyed a number of stakeholders in the supply chain including national developers and SME contractors, found a quarter of respondents said a lack of skilled workers was preventing the necessary stock being built.
The biggest issues holding back building growth were slow planning decisions and public opposition to development, the report said.
Alasdair Gardner, head of housebuilders, Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said: “Housebuilders told us that slow planning decisions are a challenge, something the commission reflected in its call for clearer targets for local authorities on planning process time frame.”
Further findings showed that almost a quarter of housebuilders said in order to improve the situation, greater local authority support to promote and fund building projects was needed, with a further 23% wanting additional government support.
Respondents appeared more optimistic about the future, with 87% seeking to create new jobs in the next 12 months, equivalent to more than 100,000 new housebuilding roles if replicated across the industry.
Stephen Smith, director, legal and general mortgage club and housing, added: “Housebuilding is heading in the right direction, but not nearly fast enough. It’s paramount that any unnecessary hurdles are removed in the housebuilding process to allow the construction industry to ramp up housing supply. Previous changes to the planning permission process were welcome, but clearly more needs to be done to streamline the house building process.
“It’s also crucial that the industry acts to encourage more efficient use of current housing stock by building more homes of the right size and in the right places. Last-time buyers, for example, who wish to downsize to a smaller property, may be unable to do so due to a lack of suitable alternatives,” he said.
