"Until the government commits to addressing the housing crisis at a national scale, not just in London, this market imbalance will continue"
- Daniel Normal -
Following the government’s commitment in last week’s Spring Budget to deliver 8,000 new homes across London, the latest research by property development specialist, APRAO, analysed Gov data looking at historic new-build housing delivery over the last five years across each region of England, as well as 10 major cities, to see which areas of the property market have seen the most consistent level of new homes built based on the average annual rate of delivery.
The research shows across the nation as a whole, an average of 168,930 new homes have been built per year.
In last week’s Spring Budget, Jeremy Hunt announced that the government will invest £242 million in two London regeneration projects that between them could create almost 8,000 new homes across the Capital.
But while London may have been the sole focus of the Spring Budget where housing supply is concerned, the research by APRAO shows that the capital doesn’t take the top spot when it comes to historic new-build delivery.
In fact, it’s the South East that sits top with an average of 30,818 new homes built per year over the last five years.
The East of England has seen the second largest level of new-build delivery with an average of 21,068 homes built per year, while the North West also ranks ahead of London with 20,656 new homes delivered on average each year.
However, when analysing the data at city level, London does sit at the top of the table and by quite some margin. Just Manchester comes close to the level of new-build housing delivery seen across the capital, with an average of 7,650 new homes built each year.
Leeds ranks third in this respect, although with just 2,012 new homes delivered on average each year, the city has seen a minute level of new-build supply versus the capital.
CEO of APRAO, Daniel Normal, commented: “The issue of housing supply is one that has largely been ignored in previous budgets, with the government instead choosing to focus on buyer demand-based initiatives in order to keep house prices buoyant.
"So it was great to see the commitment to deliver 8,000 new homes across London last week, albeit a relative drop in the ocean compared to the actual need for new homes.
"In fact, the sole announcement for new homes equates to just 0.02% of the government’s total budget and some may also argue that the level of housing supply across our major cities is a tad out of kilter, with London seeing a vastly superior number of new homes delivered over the last five years.
"Until the government commits to addressing the housing crisis at a national scale, not just in London, this market imbalance will continue.”
