MPs have expressed disappoint at the latest official housebuilding figures showing a dip in development despite the Government’s aim to build 1.5m homes by 2029.
Official data shows annual housing supply in England hit 208,600 net additional dwellings in the year to March 2025, a 6% decrease on 2023/2024.
This resulted from 190,600 new build homes, 17,710 gains from change of use between non-domestic and residential, 3,850 from conversions between houses and flats and 1,080 other gains (caravans, house boats, etc), offset by 4,630 demolitions.
Florence Eshalomi, chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Committee, said “the statistics show that only 208,600 new homes were delivered in the year to March 2025, continuing over a decade of failure to build anything like the homes we need.
The Government must be focused on getting to grips with this crisis and bring forward the delayed Long-Term Housing Strategy, which has been promised for over a year now. It must set out how we can ramp up the pace of housing delivery with practical reforms to build 1.5 million homes during this Parliament.
Given the scale of the crisis, I hope the Chancellor will use next week’s Budget to boost the housing sector, support councils and the New Towns programme, and help deliver the billions of pounds of public and private investment needed to meet the Government’s housing ambitions.”
UK Housebuilding Will Remain Subdued Until 2029-30
The UK Government faces a significant blow as housebuilding set to fall by 17%.
A leak from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) ahead of the official November Budget revealed that the number of houses built in the UK is set to fall sharply in the coming years.
Net additions to the housing stock are projected to drop from 260,000 homes a year in the early 2020s to just 215,000 by 2026‑27 – a 17% decline.
The leaked figures raise concerns about housing supply and affordability before planning reforms are expected to drive a recovery toward 2030.
OBR says homebuilding will dip
The OBR forecasts that net annual additions will remain subdued in the mid-2020s, with cumulative net additions between 2024-25 and 2029-30 expected to reach 1.49 million – around 10,000 fewer than projected in March.
The projected slump reflects subdued housing starts in recent years, higher mortgage rates, and rising building costs. The dip represents the slowest period of housing growth in the decade before planned reforms take effect.
OBR predicts homebuilding rebound by 2030
From 2027 onwards, the OBR anticipates a strong rebound in housebuilding. By 2029-30, net additions could reach 305,000 homes a year – the highest level in decades.
This recovery is linked directly to expected improvements in the planning system, which the government says will remove bottlenecks, speed approvals, and make more land available for development.
The planning reforms the OBR believe will help homebuilding
Central to the OBR's projected homebuilding recovery is the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which aims to overhaul the UK’s planning system:
- Delegated decisions: Many planning applications would be determined by officers rather than committees, speeding up approvals.
- Strategic planning authorities & Spatial Development Strategies (SDS): Regional-level frameworks to coordinate housing growth across local areas.
- Streamlined infrastructure consents: Faster approvals for nationally significant projects, including housing, transport, and energy.
- Simplified environmental rules & nature restoration fund: Reduces delays caused by environmental consents while maintaining safeguards.
Government analysis suggests these reforms will significantly increase the pace of housing delivery, underpinning the OBR’s 305,000-home forecast by 2029-30.
Housebuilding around train stations to be given green light
Housebuilding near well-connected train stations will receive a default “yes” in future if projects meet certain rules, the Government has said.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announcement last week suggested thousands more working families and commuters will be able to live and work near train stations thanks to this drive to speed up housebuilding, which will help connect people to towns and cities, and open the door to new job and education opportunities.
Housebuilders will be encouraged to build more homes near these transport links, and councils in England will also now be required to tell the Government when they intend to reject new housing developments over a certain size, with the Housing Secretary able to have the final say on whether they should go ahead.
The proposals will include minimum housing density standards for these sites, expected to be exceeded in many cases, to make the most of sustainable growth opportunities for local housing, jobs, and businesses.
Particular attention will be paid to those applications where a planning committee intends to refuse it contrary to the advice of planning officers.
These changes will be introduced alongside proposals to streamline the statutory consultation process.
It also builds on work already underway following the launch of Platform4, a new property company set to unlock 40,000 homes on brownfield land near railway stations, with four sites already earmarked, including Newcastle Forth Goods Yard and Manchester Mayfield – supporting the governments wider plan for boosting productivity, growth and living standards across the north
Housing Secretary Steve Reed said “I promised we’d get Britain building and that’s exactly what we are doing. But it has to be the right homes in the right places and nearby transport links are a vital part of that. We’re making it easier to build well-connected and high-quality homes, using stronger powers to speed things up if councils drag their feet, and proposing to streamline the consultation process to cut back delays.
This is about action: spades in the ground, breathing new life into communities, and families finally getting the homes they need. We’re ending years of dither and delay by green lighting affordable new homes for working people.
This is another demonstration that our Plan for Change is getting spades in the ground faster, connecting people with jobs and opportunities closer to where they live, and boosting towns and cities across the country.”