Sharp rise in new housing permissions

There has been a significant increase in the volume of housing permissions by local authorities in the last year, according to new figures published by the Home Builders’ Federation (HBF) and Glenigan. The latest HBF/Glenigan Housing Pipeline report reveals that 194,820 residential property permissions have been granted in 2014, ensuring the year saw the highest level of new housing starts in the UK since 2008. “Increasing housing delivery will provide the high quality homes our next generation needs, support thousands of companies up and down the land and create tens of thousands of jobs,” said Stewart Baseley (left), Executive Chairman of the HBF. However, he added that efforts still need to be made to ensure that the number of housing starts continue to rise in the years ahead, as the UK is currently still behind on the level of development needed to meet rising demand for new homes, fuelled in part by the Help to Buy scheme. Speeding up the rate at which permissions are granted is one of the keys to a significant, sustainable increase in housing supply, according to Baseley who highlighted that too many sites are ‘stuck’ in the planning system, with an estimated 150,000 plots at…

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