Housing supply (including affordable) across the UK

All-sector housing supply across the UK countries

Chart 10 presents trends in the rates of all-sector new housebuilding completions per 10,000 population across each of the UK countries on a financial year basis (years to end March). Financial years are used to allow comparisons across all UK countries.

Please note that the most comprehensive measure for England’s housing supply is the financial year ‘net additional dwellings' series, rather than the indicative indicators of activity published in the quarterly new build statistics. However, this measure wasn’t published at the time of writing the Scottish Government publication.

Scotland built more homes per 10,000 population in 2023-24 compared with Northern Ireland and Wales, as Chart 10 shows. In Scotland the completions rate was 36 per 10,000 people, Northern Ireland was 28 per 10,000, and Wales was 15 per 10,000.  A valid comparison with England will be provided when the ‘net additional dwelling’ statistics are released.

The largest decrease (between 2022-23 and 2023-24) was reported in Wales (-18%), followed by Scotland (-17%), Northern Ireland (-15%) and England (-12%), based on the indicative building control-based figures.

Chart 10:  New housebuilding completions as a rate per 10,000 population (years to end March)

Affordable housing delivery across UK countries

Whilst definitions and the delivery of affordable housing differs across the UK, comparisons can be made considering these differences by financial year per 10,000 population. Data for the financial year 2023-24 across the rest of the UK was not available at the time of writing this report.

However, our previous publications presented such comparisons up 2022-23. Where, in 2022-23, the 10,462 affordable homes delivered in Scotland equates to a rate of 19.1 homes delivered per 10,000 population, compared to 11.4 in Northern Ireland, 11.3 in England and 10.6 in Wales. For a more detailed write up please refer to the December 2023 publication.