The latest Housing Pipeline Report from the Home Builders Federation (HBF) and Glenigan shows that just 242,610 units received planning permission in 2024, the lowest total for any calendar year since 2014.
This marks a 2% decrease from 2023 and a 26% drop from the 2019 peak, equating to a loss of more than 85,000 annual approvals.
To meet the government’s target of 370,000 new homes per year, planning approvals must rise by 53%, the HBF says.
The number of approved sites was at a record low, with only 9,776 projects given the green light—the fewest since HBF began counting in 2006. The rolling annual total of approved sites has now set new record lows for 11 consecutive quarters.
The HBF is blaming the Tories. It says that the numbers are largely a reflection of the previous government’s approach to housing policy. But they also highlight the barriers that remain – constraints on house-building are much broader than simply relaxing planning laws, the HBF says.
A lack of affordable mortgage lending is supressing demand, in particular from young people; and the inability of housing associations to take on the affordable housing provided as part of every planning permission is preventing companies from being able to invest in new sites. Additionally, the increasing number of taxes being levied on the homes being delivered is making development across swathes of the country unviable and making the operating environment, especially for SME builders unworkable, it argues.
Compounding the issue is the continuing lack of resources in local planning authorities, which struggle to manage the volume of planning applications needed to meet housing demand, adding cost and delay to processing applications.
HBF chief executive Neil Jefferson said: “The latest planning figures show that housing supply in the short and medium terms is at critical crisis levels.
“Whilst we welcome the scale of the government’s housing ambition and the swift action on planning, the industry’s ability produce homes is being stifled by a range of issues outside of its control.
“Increasing housing delivery will require much more than just planning reform. Government has to address broader issues like financing for homebuyers and ensuring there are sufficient providers in the market to take on the affordable homes developers are building – and reduce the crippling levels of taxation being planned and imposed that are making development across swathes of the country unviable.
“In reality planning permissions and house-building levels are falling and companies do not have the confidence to invest with SMEs in particular struggling and a growing number unable to continue to operate.
“The industry is keen to press the accelerator and play its part in delivering the homes, but we also need further government intervention is urgently needed to enable it to do so.”
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