The housing secretary Robert Jenrick has said the latest figures reflect the housing and construction industry’s resilience and measures they have taken to keep building sites open, in line with public health advice
Support for all of those involved in the housing market, from renters and buyers to builders, and measures to help the construction industry to work safely during the pandemic, has led to an increase in the number of completed homes, new housebuilding figures published on 14 January 2021 show.
The official housebuilding statistics show 35,710 homes were started in July to September 2020 – a 111% increase when compared to the previous quarter – while, 45,000 homes were completed in the same period, representing a 185% increase on the previous quarter.
More homes on brownfield land
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick, said: “Today’s figures show that the number of new homes developers have started building have more than doubled compared to the previous quarter and the number of completed homes has almost tripled.
“This reflects the government’s commitment throughout the pandemic to support industry to enable construction sites to remain open and operate safely.
“We extended planning permission deadlines and flexible working hours on sites so that builders, architects and developers have been able to continue working while following public health advice. In turn this has protected millions of jobs, from builders, through to estate agents and carpenters.
“The housing industry is key to our economic recovery, which is why we’re investing £12bn in affordable housing, providing £400m to build more homes on brownfield land, and investing £7.1bn for a new National Home Building Fund over the next 4 years, unlocking up to 860,000 homes.”
Read the full report here.
