The quantity of social housing being built has fallen to its lowest level since records began in 1949 and by almost one-third since New Labour took office in 1997.
The figures released by the Government's Office for the Deputy Prime Minister suggest that Britain's housing supply crisis is set to rapidly worsen as the number of private homes built last year also barely changed from the previous year's 77-year low.
The annual shortfall in total housing completions is now running at 60,000 per annum with approximately 160,000 homes built each year against household growth of 220,000.
The House Builders Federation believes the planning system is in crisis. The latest Government figures on planning department efficiency (last quarter
2002) also reveal the number of major residential (10 or more dwellings) planning applications decided within the regulation eight weeks is at a record low of 16 per cent. The Government's target is for 60 per cent of these applications to be decided within eight weeks.
Pierre Williams, spokesman for the House Builders Federation, said: "With both private and social housebuilding at record lows, the planning system obviously unable to cope and with household growth at a record high, Britain's housing crisis is set to worsen rapidly.
"Although the Government has acknowledged the problem, its proposed changes to planning legislation will not make sufficient an impact on such an extreme imbalance between supply and demand for housing. It is therefore worrying that these changes have been called by Government as the 'biggest shake-up of the planning system for 50 years'."
The shortage of new housing of all tenures is primarily due to the pressure put on Government by the nimby lobby which has resulted in planning policies demanding an increase in housebuilding on brownfield land without sufficient corresponding public investment to make these sites viable for development.
Williams said: "The Deputy Prime Minister's office claims its policy to increase the proportion of new homes on brownfield sites has been a success. Whilst it is true that the target for 60 per cent on new homes to be built on brownfield land has been reached six years ahead of target, this has only been achieved at massive cost to total housing output.
"ODPM statistics show that over the last five last years housing completions on brownfield sites have fallen 5%, whilst completions on greenfield sites have fallen 23%. The 60% brownfield target has therefore been met only because of the slump in greenfield completions.
"The reality is that although significant quantities of brownfield land are available, much of it is financially unviable. Wherever possible, developers will use brownfield sites but they cannot take on loss-making projects. The costs of decontamination coupled with excessive planning gain demands, including a greater proportion of affordable housing in exchange for planning permission, is reducing rather than increasing the viability of these sites.
"Essentially, the extent to which Britain's future housing is built on brownfield land depends on the amount of public investment put in to make these sites viable. The greater the investment, the more urban regeneration can be realised.
"Ultimately, however, anti-housebuilding groups are responsible for shaping planning policy on the basis of fanciful claims about Britain being 'concreted over' whilst championing themselves as environmentalists.
"Nothing could be further from the truth. They have no interest in the wider environment, only their backyards. That new homes are vastly more energy-efficient; that key workers are being forced into commuting long distances; that their views are seriously damaging the lives of the moderately paid, or indeed that many greenfields are anything but green, is of no interest to them.
"The reality is that even if England was to build sufficient homes to meet projected need, its urban area would increase from 10.6 per cent in 1991 to 11.9 per cent in 2016, or one per cent every 20 years. By contrast 16 per cent of the country is designated as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, 12 per cent as Green Belt and eight per cent as National Park." Ends
Contact:
Pierre Williams
t: 020 7960 1606
m: 0772 055 0768
f: 020 7960 1601
e: Pierre.Williams@hbf.co.uk