New data from Homes England 2022-23 housebuilding statistics revealed overall levels of starts and completions were down as a result of the impact of tough economies conditions on the housebuilding industry.
The housing programmes delivered by Homes England resulted in 36,478 new houses starting on-site and 32,990 houses completed between 1st April 2022 and 31st March 2023.
The Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme is on course to exceed its objective of delivering 130,000 new affordable homes, with 126,800 starts by the end of March 2023 and a further 5,000 remaining starts to deliver in 2023-24.
Due to the impact on the affordable housing sector caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, government agreed an extension to the 2016-21 programme until March 2023, giving the sector funding stability and ensuring affordable housing providers could continue to build their pipeline and deliver through the current programme. A subsequent extension was agreed in 2022 to safeguard the sector against turbulent market conditions.
From 1st April 2022 to 31st March 2023, over three-quarters (78%) of starts (28,457) were for affordable homes. This marks an increase of 3% on the previous year, due to the maturing of the Affordable Homes Programme 2021-26 in its second year of delivery.
Of the housing completions, 23,318 (71%) were for affordable homes, which is a 12% decrease on the previous year. This decrease can be attributed to the closure of the Affordable Homes Guarantees, Care and Support Specialised Housing, Empty Homes and Shared Ownership Affordable Homes Programme 2016-21, with completions naturally reducing towards the end of a programme life cycle. Additionally, with the AHP 2021-26 two years in, completions are only beginning to gradually build up.
A total of 4,793 affordable homes started in 2022-23 were for Affordable Rent. There were 3,921 starts under schemes including Shared Ownership and Rent to Buy. 17,525 starts were defined as £Affordable Tenure TBC” homes, where the ultimate tenure category is not known until completion. The remaining 2,218 were for Social Rent, a 12% increase on the previous year.
Of the affordable homes completed, 10,250 were for Affordable Rent, a decrease of 27% on the previous year, and 9,336 under Intermediate Affordable Housing schemes. The remaining 3,732 were Social Rent completions, up 21% on the previous year.
Chief Executive of Homes England, Peter Denton, said:
“The success of the Shared Ownership and Affordable Housing Programme 2016-21 is testament to the drive, ambition and resilience of our delivery partners to build their pipelines in the face of unprecedented barriers, and create over 130,000 new, quality affordable homes for families across the country.
It is also encouraging to see an increase in the number of affordable homes starting on site in 2022-23, thanks in no small part to partners maintaining momentum through early site identification and strong delivery pipelines.
However, the wider statistics released today reflect the delivery challenges faced by the housebuilding sector over the past year.
Affordable housing providers experienced a perfect storm of build cost inflation, rising labour costs, material availability, building remediation issues and the duty to support tenants through a cost-of-living crisis, all of which hindered investment in new homes, leading to stalled or stopped schemes.”
