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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether affordable housing starts that remain uncompleted for multiple years are included in published figures cited as evidence of housing delivery; and whether official publications distinguish starts from completed homes when reporting delivery outcomes.

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.