Research from property developer, Stripe Property Group, has shown that the government needs to deliver an average of 67,500 new homes a quarter by the end of next year to achieve the one million new homes promised by the end of parliament.
Last week, Michael Gove set out the government’s plans to tackle the housing crisis, with a focus on regenerating brownfield sites in towns and cities across the country. Rishi Sunak also reaffirmed his commitment to the one million new homes promise stated in his manifesto. Stripe’s analysis shows that this will require the government to deliver almost 68,000 homes each quarter, a figure they have not achieved during their time in power.
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The analysis shows that in the time since the current government took charge in December 2019, approximately three years and six months, just 594,805 new homes have been delivered across England.
The best quarterly performance was seen during the final quarter of 2020 when 51,370 new homes were delivered.
With just a year and a half left for the government to reach its target (the next election is scheduled to be held no later than January 2025), a further 405,195 new homes are required to hit the one million threshold.
Managing director of Stripe Property Group, James Forrester, commented: “The government is notoriously poor at keeping its promises when it comes to housing delivery and time and time again we’ve seen targets set, only for them to fall by the wayside further down the line. At the same time, local councils are making it harder and harder for housebuilders to comply with the masses of red tape, all of which increases the prices for the end user.”
“Given the fact that less than 600,000 new homes have been delivered in the last three and a half years or so, we can’t imagine that the target of one million new homes by the end of next year will come to fruition either.”
“So we can expect to hear more excuses from Rishi Sunak and Co come the end of parliament, as well as more smoke and mirrors around the delivery of new housing, no doubt fudging the figures with new additional dwellings data to make it appear as though they’ve delivered on their word.”
