Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government in which years since 1945 they estimate that 300,000 houses or more houses were built in England.

Housebuilding is a priority for this Government. The Government is on track to meet its manifesto commitment to deliver a million homes over this Parliament. Since April 2010, over 2.5 million additional homes have been delivered, and the four highest annual rates of housing supply in 30 years have all come since 2018. Last year for example we saw delivered 234,400 net additional homes, which is over 75% towards the Government’s aspiration to see 300,000 new homes a year. But we recognise there is more to do.

There are numerous measures that are being delivered as part of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act, the National Planning Policy Framework reforms, and future supporting policy and legislation to increase housebuilding. These measures aim to reduce planning delays, bureaucracy, slow build-out rates, and wider barriers to development. We have reformed rules around CPO and Hope Value. We are also introducing a new Infrastructure Levy which will reform the existing system of developer contributions, made up of Section 106 planning obligations and the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). The Government is committed to the delivery of on-site affordable housing through this Levy, and to delivering at least as much, if not more, affordable housing than the current system does.

As the Secretary of State set out in his speech in December, putting plan making at the heart of the planning system will help drive a new wave of housebuilding, and the Government is working intensively to support densification in the hearts of our inner cities. A reformed planning system will help bring certainty to communities and developers, enabling them to take positive steps in building more housing, regenerating their local areas, and supporting economic growth.

Annual estimates of building control reported new build dwelling completions, in England, for the period from 1946 to 2022, show that 300,000 or more dwellings were built in each year from 1964 to 1969. In these years there was a mix of new private and social housing built, including by many SMEs builders.