The MHCLG’s house building stats for the March quarter revealed that new build starts are 9% down year on year. Joseph Daniels, founder of modular developer Project Etopia, commented on the stats:
“Housebuilding has swung into reverse yet again, and it is a further sign that the industry is not consistent enough in its delivery of new homes. A slump in the pipeline of new homes is now programmed in for later this year.
“With new build starts also 25% down on the pre-crisis peak, the structural problems of the UK’s housing market and the industry’s timid reply are still painfully obvious, even after £10billion of public money has been thrown at it in the form of the Help To Buy scheme. The UK needs a revolution in housebuilding, not a peaceful protest.
“For all the talk about the government setting ambitious housing targets, there is still a lack of urgency when it comes to walking the walk, and this has meant starts on new homes are down 9% on both the previous quarter and the same time last year.
“The rate of progress means Government targets remain only a pipedream, and the people it hurts are the ones desperate to get onto the housing ladder, who are locked out by high prices because the supply is simply not there.
“Housing is in a state of crisis, yet the response has not reflected how high a priority house-building needs to be in the UK.
“Only by turning to modern methods of construction which are much faster than traditional building can we hope to deliver the housing the country desperately needs.”