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The number of new homes given planning approval in England in the first three months of this year was the lowest figure for 13 years, according to new research which underlines the challenges facing Sir Keir Starmer’s government as it seeks to boost housebuilding.
Only 39,170 new homes received approval in the first quarter of 2025 in England, a drop of 55 per cent on the previous three months and 32 per cent lower than the same period of last year, according to new figures produced for the Home Builders Federation.
The HBF data tends to prefigure the official figures, due to be published later in the year.
Neil Jefferson, chief executive of the HBF, said the figures were “disastrous” for both the industry and the government’s ambition of increasing new housing supply.
“With current supply flatlining and permissions for homes to be built over the next few years plummeting, unless urgent interventions are made there seems little chance of us building the homes we know are desperately needed,” he said.
Jefferson added that ministers must address the lack of affordable mortgage lending and the absence “for the first time in decades of any government support scheme for first time buyers”.
Starmer has made the building of 1.5mn new homes in England during this five-year parliament one of his key pledges — equivalent to 300,000 new homes a year.
But the HBF data suggests that the rolling annual figure for housing units securing detailed planning approval was 225,067 in the year to the end of March, a 7 per cent fall on the previous 12-month period.
That is the lowest annual figure since 2012 and is well below a high of 335,802 hit in early 2021.
However Labour has expressed hopes that it can boost development through various reforms to the planning system.
Last year the government rewrote the “national planning policy framework” to reimpose housing targets on councils and is currently pushing a planning and infrastructure bill through parliament.
The HBF’s Jefferson called on the government to take action to stimulate more demand for new housing, including bringing back equity loans or shared equity mortgage support and easing requirements for property developers to build public infrastructure such as the schools, GP surgeries and roads needed for their projects.
He also warned that housebuilders were struggling under various taxes and levies introduced in recent years including a residential property developers tax, nutrient neutrality charges and the “future homes standard” which will force builders to add solar panels.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the industry body, said resource constraints in local planning authorities and capacity challenges for utility providers “were creating friction in the system”.
“The key ingredient for the industry is clarity,” said Justin Young, chief executive of RICS. “Reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework are still bedding into the sector, and uncertainty is part of the reason for the application slowdown.”
The British Property Federation, which has some members in the residential housing sector, said “significant” delays at the Building Safety Regulator due to lack of staff were causing blockages.
“These figures are not a surprise to us,” said Rachel Kelly, policy director with the BPF. “Applications which should take 8 to 12 weeks are taking 24 weeks, and even up to a year, to be finalised. Delays at the regulator are the biggest barrier at the moment.”
Matthew Spry, senior director at planning and development consultancy Lichfields, said the industry had welcomed the government’s planning reforms.
“But to move the dial on delivery, those applications require expeditious determination by local planning authorities: the government will need to rapidly implement the current planning and infrastructure bill.”
A ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “We know that 1.5mn homes is a stretching target, but we are taking decisive action to speed up every stage of the planning process and deliver the homes and infrastructure we need through our plan for change.”
