Housing: New Build

Lord Young of Cookham Excerpts

Monday 22nd February 2016 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Young of Cookham]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what has been the rate of new house building starts in the past 12 months.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Williams of Trafford) (Con)]

My Lords, housing starts in England in the 12 months to the end of September 2015 totalled 137,490, with completions increasing by 17% over the same period. Under this Government, housing starts and new housing construction output are at their highest annual levels since 2007.

[Lord Young of Cookham (Con)]

I am grateful to my noble friend for that reply. Has she seen the latest review by the National House Building Council, which shows a welcome increase of some 75% in new homes registered over the past six years, but says that there is a very substantial gap between supply and demand? Can she give any assurances that, as the industry recovers and responds to the many initiatives taken by the Government to increase supply, progress will not be impeded, as it has been in the past, by shortages of skilled labour or building materials?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My noble friend raises the important issue for the housing industry of both brickies and bricks. The Government have been very mindful of that: the DCLG and BIS are working with the Construction Leadership Council to review what skills the industry needs. The research that my noble friend mentions shows that more than 100,000 new jobs were created in England in the past year. We want to go further than that and encourage people who want to go into the industry to be able to do so, in line with our other ambition of creating 3 million apprentices by 2020.