Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) reported that there’s been an 8% fall in the number of new homes built in England from the year before.
In its statistics for the net supply of housing in England for the 2012/13 financial year, DCLG said there’s been a year on year decrease since the peak in 2007/08.
The primary reason given for the 8% fall in the net supply of housing is due to the fall in new build completions, with 9,620 fewer new build completions than the previous year. New build completions have fallen from 128,160 in 2011/12 to 118,540 last year.
The lack of housing supply has been cited by many commentators as the main reason for rising house prices in England.
Conservative think-tank Policy Exchange published a report yesterday calling for the next government to build 300,000 new homes in the UK every year from 2015 – 2020, to ‘stem an emerging social and economic crisis’.