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Housing boom leads to 170k new homes built in England

Xinhua, November 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

The number of new homes built in England in the past year has risen by 25 percent, representing the biggest increase for 28 years, the government's communities department said Thursday.

Communities Secretary Greg Clark said 170,690 new homes were built in the last year. It means more than 700,000 additional homes have been delivered in England since 2010.

Clark said there has been a significant increase of new homes created by converting buildings into residential properties. More than 20,600 of such conversions were completed in 2014-2015, a rise of 65 percent on the year before.

The latest figures come just weeks after the government announced it would change the rules to enable offices to be converted into new homes without having to apply for planning permission.

Communities Secretary Clark said: "We're determined to make sure everyone has the opportunity and security of owning a home of their own.

"Today's figures show a 25 percent increase in the number of new homes over the past year - showing our reforms are building new homes across Britain.

"We are going further and will do everything we can to help families buy a place of their own. Government support like Help to Buy and our plans to build 200,000 new Starter Homes will help anyone who aspires to own their own home the chance of making their dream a reality."

Housing Minister Brandon Lewis said: "We've brought the housebuilding industry back from the brink, giving them the tools they need to get on with the job and build homes.

"It includes making it easier for developers to turn underused buildings into new homes with today's figures showing a 65 percent increase in these kinds of developments over the past year."

He said the vast majority of the homes delivered in the past 12 months have been new builds.

Figures released Thursday also show the number of rented homes bought by families under the government's Right to Buy scheme has risen 5 percent on last year.

The government recently announced an historic agreement to extend the 'Right to Buy' scheme to 1.3 million housing association tenants who currently rent their homes.

New measures proposed by the government include new affordable 'starter Homes', placing a new legal duty on town and city councils to guarantee reasonably sized and affordable homes on all new housing development sites. Other measures include greater use of brownfield sites to protect green belt areas. And planning reforms to support small builders. Endit