Social sector new housebuilding

Social sector housing consists of local authority and housing association housing, and has accounted for just under a third (28%) of all new build homes completed over the 12 months to the end of June 2023.

Chart 8 shows the number of local authority and housing association homes started and completed each year to end June.

Annual levels of local authority starts and completions have shown a broadly increasing trend over time since 2009, although starts and completions have both decreased in the most recent year 2023.

Housing association trends have shown a different picture, with levels of starts dropping across the 2010 to 2013 period before levels increased in 2017 and then stayed around this higher level before dropping over the latest two years to 2023. Levels of housing association completions dropped between 2011 and 2013 and remained at this lower level until 2017 after which levels have increased up to the latest year 2023 aside from annual drops in 2020 and 2021.

Chart 8: Latest annual social sector new build completions figures to end June 2023 show increases on the previous year for housing association completions, with housing association approvals and local authority starts and completions decreasing from the previous year.

A total of 942 social sector new build homes were completed between April to June 2023, a decrease of 25% (315 homes) on the same quarter in 2022. This brings the total completions for the 12 months to end June 2023 to 6,648, an increase of 2% (139 homes) on the 6,509 social sector new build homes completed in the previous year.

Meanwhile, 647 social sector new build homes were started between April to June 2023. This is 36% (361 homes) lower than the same quarter the previous year. This brings the total for the 12 months to end June 2023 to 3,665, a decrease of 26% (1,255 homes) on the 4,920 social sector homes started in the same period in 2022.

Maps C and D below show the rates of housing association and local authority new build completions in each local authority area for the year to end June 2023 per 10,000 of the population.

Note that the housing stock of 6 local authorities (Argyll & Bute, Dumfries & Galloway, Glasgow, Inverclyde, Na h-Eileanan Siar and Scottish Borders) has been transferred to housing associations and so these areas do not build new local authority houses.

In the year to end June 2023 local authority sector new build rates were highest in Aberdeen City, Midlothian, Highland, North Ayrshire, East Lothian, Renfrewshire, and East Ayrshire with all having rates of over 5 homes per 10,000 population.

As well as the 6 stock transfer authorities mentioned above, Clackmannanshire, Falkirk, Orkney, Shetland Islands and West Dunbartonshire built no new local authority sector homes in the year ending June 2023. Aberdeenshire had a rate of less than 1 homes built per 10,000 population.

Meanwhile rates of housing association new build completions were highest in Dumfries & Galloway, Fife, Inverclyde,  Na h-Eileanan Siar, Orkney, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire, all having rates of over 12 homes per 10,000 population.

Aberdeen City, Angus, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Falkirk and Midlothian, all had a rate less than 4 housing association homes per 10,000 population.

Map C: New build housing – Local Authority Sector completions: rates per 10,000 population, year to end June 2023.

Map D: New build housing – Housing Association Sector completions: rates per 10,000 population, year to end June 2023.

Charts 9 and 10 along with Table 5 show the latest quarterly figures for housing associations and local authorities to end June 2023.

Chart 9: Housing association new housebuilding starts and completions by quarter.

Chart 10: Local authority new housebuilding starts and completions by quarter.

Table 3: Social sector new housebuilding to end June 2023

Note in the table above that new housebuilding starts and completions in April to June 2020 were affected by the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown measures that were in place during that quarter.

Change to data used to measure Housing Association Starts

This publication incorporates an improvement in which data on housing association new build starts, previously reported on through a proxy measure of approvals, is now presented from April 2018 onwards based on starts data due to an improvement in the quality of data recorded.

This follows on from the introduction of the Housing and Regenerations programme (HARP) system that began operation in September 2017, and from which higher quality data on housing association starts is now available, meaning that figures presented on housing association new build starts for the period from April 2018 onwards no longer need to be based on the proxy measure of approvals.

This change means that new build housing association figures presented in this publication are now based on actual starts figures for the period from April 2018 onwards (i.e. the approvals based figures as presented in previous publications have now been replaced with this new set of starts data across this period). However figures presented for the period prior to April 2018 are still based on the previous proxy measure of approvals data.

Charts 11 and 12 and Table 3b below set out the impact of this change in terms of the total number of housing association and all-sector starts being reported.

Chart 11: Impact of moving from using approvals to starts based data for measuring housing association and all-sector new housebuilding starts, annual figures (years to end June).

Table 3b: Impact of moving from using approvals to starts based data for measuring housing association and all-sector new housebuilding starts, annual figures (years to end June)

It can be seen that the use of starts data show trends over time that are broadly similar to the previous proxy approval based figures. The magnitude of the impacts of this change has varied each year, with the differences at an all-sector level across the latest two years being only 1%  each year, whilst there is a larger difference of 8% for the year 2021, and some of the differences at a housing association led level are greater. The quarterly comparisons figures show likewise similar overall trends over time, although there is some variation in figures for specific quarters as would be expected given that each measure is reporting on a different point in time within the new housebuilding process.

It is worth noting that the impact of moving from using approvals to starts data is likely to be mostly around the reporting of the timing of when activity has occurred in specific quarters or years, rather than any changes to the overall cumulative level of activity over time. Across the six years of figures presented in the table above from 2018 to 2023, there have been a total of 23,946 housing association new build starts based on using starts figures, which is relatively close to (1,290 or 6% higher) the equivalent total of 22,656 when using the previous method of housing association proxy approval figures.

Chart 12: Impact of moving from using approvals to starts based data for measuring housing association and all-sector new housebuilding starts, quarterly figures:

Also note that whilst figures on housing association new build approvals will no longer form part of the new housebuilding starts figures as published as part of the main publication, these approvals figures will continue to be published as part of the supporting Excel webtables new housebuilding material, as well as continuing to feed into the Affordable Housing Supply approvals figures as presented in the main publication.