Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether there is a maximum period for which an affordable housing start may remain uncompleted while continuing to be treated as a valid start for statistical purposes; and if there is no such limit, how the integrity of the affordable housing starts series is maintained.

Published statistics on new affordable housing supply in England, which can be found on gov.uk here, are broken down into starts and completions.

Individual units are not tracked from start-on-site to completion. This is because the data provided directly by local planning authorities is collected on an aggregate basis to reduce burden while providing sufficient detail for use.

The integrity of the data is maintained through thorough quality assurance checks, including cross checking with other data sources, while consistency and comparability are ensured through the detailed published guidance for each question.

The affordable housing supply statistics have been assessed by the Office for Statistics Regulation and at the last assessment their continued Accredited Official Statistics status was confirmed.