House building in England falls

The number of new houses that started to be built in 2011 in England was 98,250, a drop of 4 per cent compared with 2010, according to the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG).

Annual housing completions in England totalled 109,020 in the 12 months to September 2011, an increase of 6 per cent compared with the 12 months to December 2010.

Quarterly housing starts

To compare housing starts and completions on a quarterly basis CLG uses seasonally adjusted figures – annual statistics used are non-seasonally adjusted.

House building starts stood at 25,240 in the last quarter of 2011, a rise of 6 per cent on the previous quarter. This was 74 per cent above the trough in the first quarter of 2009, but 48 per cent below the December quarter 2005 peak.

Private enterprise housing starts in the fourth quarter of 2011 were 6 per cent above the previous quarter while starts by housing associations were 1 per cent higher.

Housing completions in England also increased in the last quarter of 2011 to 26,730, up 2 per cent from 26,180 in the third quarter.

Completions by housing associations increased by 12 per cent between the third and fourth quarter of 2011. However, private enterprise housing completions were 2 per cent lower in the final quarter than in the previous quarter.

Since 2001

Between 2001 and 2005, housing starts experienced a period of sustained growth before levelling off - averaging around 44,000 units each quarter until late 2007.

Starts were strongly affected by the economic downturn and from the beginning of 2008 there was a period of rapid decline to a trough in the March quarter of 2009.

Housing completions responded more gradually to the downturn. From 2009 starts began to recover and over the last two years the two series have converged and levelled off.

This indicates that the stabilisation of starts has worked its way through to completions. New supply is currently at around 60 per cent of pre-downturn levels.

Annual housing starts and completions

Annual housing starts increased from 150,700 in 2002, reaching a peak of 183,360 in the 12 months ending March 2006. They remained fairly stable until the beginning of 2008 when they fell sharply to 68,280 in the 12 months to June 2009.

Starts then picked up to 103,740 in the 12 months to September 2010. In the 12 months to December 2011 the figures are slightly below this, at 98,250 starts. This is 46 per cent below the peak, but up by 44 per cent compared with the trough.

Annual housing completions increased from 129,510 in 2001, reaching a peak of 175,560 in 2007. Completions totalled 109,020 in 2011, which is 38 per cent below the peak.

Regional house building starts

Starts were up by 3 per cent in the East region and by 1 per cent in the North West and London regions in the 12 months to December 2011 compared with 2010.

In all other regions starts declined over this period. Yorkshire and the Humber saw the largest fall at -17 per cent.

During 2011, the number of housing starts was highest in the South East at 18,430 and lowest in the North East at 3,930, accounting for 19 per cent and 4 per cent respectively of starts in England.

Regional completions

House building completions increased in all regions except the North West. The largest increase was in the North East where completions rose by 13 per cent in the 12 months to September 2011 relative to the previous 12 month period.

London saw an increase of 11 per cent and Yorkshire and the Humber had 8 per cent more completions than the previous year. In the North West annual completions fell by 9 per cent.

The South East region saw the largest number of new build homes completed at 20,300, accounting for 19 per cent of completions in England.

The North East was the region with the fewest housing completions at 5,090, accounting for 5 per cent of the England total. This partly reflects the fact that the North East is the smallest region in terms of housing stock with only 5 per cent of English dwellings.