Housing statistics quarterly update: March 2018

New Build Housing – All sectors

The new-build section of this document provides figures on the number of homes started (when the foundations are begun) and completed (when a building inspector deems the property complete).

Figures are presented for homes built on privately led (referred to throughout as private sector), local authority led (referred to as local authority sector) and housing association led (referred to as housing association sector) sites. For the private sector the latest information available is for the quarter ending September 2017. Whilst more up-to-date information is available for local authority and housing association new builds, findings for these sectors are mainly presented up to September 2017 to simplify comparisons between sectors.

The figures have not been seasonally adjusted and so commentary tends to compare the latest quarter with the same quarter the previous year. To help with this, Quarter 3 figures (from July to September) have been highlighted in the charts to allow easy comparison over time. Some of the peaks in the number of starts in Quarter 1 each year are due to large numbers of housing association approvals being granted near the end of the financial year.

Chart 1 (see page 1) shows the number of private sector, social sector and total new homes completed each quarter since 2007, whilst Charts 2 and 3 (below) show annual and quarterly trends, respectively, in starts and completions across all sectors.

Trends over the last ten years

Charts 1 to 3 all clearly show the impact of the recession in the second half of the last decade, with private sector led completions in particular falling throughout 2008 and 2009 (years to end September) due to the financial crisis. Completions for all sectors fell more gradually between 2010 and 2013, after which there have been annual increases seen in every year other than 2016.

The picture on all sector starts has been generally similar to the trends seen in completions, although most of the steep drop following the financial crisis was seen in 2009. Starts have increased every year since 2011, other than 2016.

Chart 2: Annual all sector new build starts and completions, years to end September, 2007 to 2017

Chart 3: Quarterly new build starts and completions (all sectors) since 2006

Trends to end September 2017

There were 4,018 new build homes completed between July and September 2017; a 9% increase on the same quarter in 2016. This brings the total for the year to end September 2017 to 17,601, up 5% (908 homes) compared to the 16,693 completed in the previous year.

There were 4,081 new build homes started between July and September 2017; 18% less than the same quarter in 2016. This brings the total for the year to end September 2017 to 19,440 which is up by 9% (1,536 homes) compared to the 17,904 homes started in the previous year.

Comparison with the rest of the UK from 2007 to 2017

Each of the countries of the UK produces their own statistics on quarterly new build housing starts and completions by tenure, and all use broadly consistent definitions. These new build statistics for each of the countries of the UK, as well as for Great Britain and the UK as a whole can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-house-building.

In addition to this, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government ( MHCLG) also produces an additional annual set of statistics for England on new build homes, as a component part of the ‘Housing supply; net additional dwellings, England’ set of statistics ^[1] . These statistics are collected on a different basis to the quarterly UK country statistics as local authorities can use a range of data sources to collate these figures rather than solely using building control information. Figures on this for 2016/17 were published on 16 November 2017, and this publication advised that the ‘net additional dwellings' should be considered the primary and most comprehensive measure of housing supply in England.

MHCLG have advised that the quarterly new build statistical collection for England, whilst being a useful leading indicator of activity throughout the year, is not currently capturing all new build activity, largely due to difficulties in collecting accurate starts and completions data from independent building inspectors or where building control has been sourced out to strategic partnerships or the private sector. These data issues do not exist in the Scotland quarterly housing statistics, given that all of the 32 local authorities in Scotland directly manage building control and the associated provision of data to the Scottish Government on starts and completions.

As a result of this advice, the new build component figures of the ‘net additional dwellings' statistics for England are included in the UK comparisons as an additional set of figures to consider when comparing between countries. However note that the ‘net additional dwellings' figures are only available on a financial year basis rather than a quarterly basis, and so there are some differences in the time periods presented.

Chart 4 shows that the rate of house building completions in Scotland has been above that of England and Wales throughout the 2007 to 2016 period (years to end September), however in the latest year, whilst the rate in Scotland (32 per 10,000 population) has been above the comparable quarterly statistics for England (28 per 10,000 population), it has been slightly below the rate of ‘net additional dwellings' new builds in England (33 per 10,000 population), although this is measured to year end March. The rate of house building completions in Scotland has been below that of Northern Ireland between 2007 and 2017, except for in 2015.

Chart 4: New house building as a rate per 10,000 population for UK countries, years to end September, 2007 to 2017

Sub-national figures for the year to end September 2017

The information on new build housing in Scotland is collected and published at local authority level. Map A, below, shows new house building in the year to end September 2017, as a rate per 10,000 population based on the latest mid-2016 population estimates.

In the year to end September 2017 the highest new build rates were observed in East Lothian, Midlothian, Fife, Orkney, and the City of Edinburgh. The lowest rates were observed in Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire, North Lanarkshire, and Dundee City.

Map A: New b uild housing – all sector completions: rates per 10,000 population, year to end September 2017