Number of new homes granted approval just 58% of target.
The number of home building sites getting planning permission fell to a new low in the first quarter of this year with just 1,220 sites for private housing granted planning approval across England, the lowest since the dataset began in 2006. This is down from around 2,000 in 2022 and nearly 3,000 in 2017.
The Home Builders Federation’s (HBF) latest Housing Pipeline report, based on data from Glenigan, reports just 408 sites for 10 homes or more received approval, also the lowest quarterly figure since 2006. In total, approval for just over 54k homes was granted in the first three months of this year – significantly below the level needed to achieve the Government’s ambition for an annual run rate of around 300,000, as housing supply and new consents for future delivery continue to flatline at around 200,000 per annum.
Whilst the Government’s reforms of the planning system were welcomed, the huge increases in taxes and regulatory costs layered on to development over recent years have made many potential home building sites unviable for development. HBF estimates that the cost of delivering a new house has increased on average by £76k since 2020 with even higher costs for new apartments. Alongside this, industry’s ability to invest in new sites has been eroded by suppressed effective demand as a result of the lack of affordable mortgage lending and a subdued housing market such that there is a constrained market for the homes they deliver. It is the first time in 60 years that there is no government assistance in place for homebuyers.
The number of larger sites – those of 10 or more units – has continued to fall steadily as investment appetite has been affected by a significant degradation in housing viability. Nationally, over the past decade, the typical number of 10+ unit sites being consented has halved from around 1,000 per quarter in 2016 to 408 in the most recent quarter. The 408 sites of 10 units or more approved in Q1 2026 is 13% down on last year, with the biggest drop in the South where the number of approvals is down 18%.
Over the last 12 months there has been a steady uptick in the number of the smallest sites receiving planning permission, in response to the positive policy environment. However, these represent 3% of all permissions granted and so will not make a meaningful difference to housing supply. The average permissioned site within the 1-2 unit category is for just over 1.1 homes so in practice these tend to be single dwelling schemes.
Over the past 12 months permission was granted for 216,141 new homes in England, representing just 58% of the combined annual target for housing delivery of 370,000, established by the Government’s own planning system, the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) – the number needed to achieve the 300k net additions per year target set by Government.
At 1,220, the number of private sector housing projects (schemes of three or more units) securing approval was 14% lower than in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 17% down on earlier Q1 2025. At 46,547, the number of units on private sector projects granted planning permission was 12% down on the previous three months and unchanged on a year earlier. The decline would have been sharper, but for the approvals of four 1,000-plus-unit sites which inevitably take longer to complete owing to the infrastructure requirements and complexity of such large schemes. The figures also demonstrate that on sites of 10 or more units, the number of units per site is increasing as developers struggle to make sites viable.
Neil Jefferson, Chief Executive of the Home Builders Federation, said: “Whilst the Government’s planning reforms have been positive, because of challenging housing market conditions and the long-term assault on housing viability, the new and improved planning system is still not delivering.
“These positive moves to boost housing supply are being thwarted by the growing level of taxation and cost of policy requirements that are making many sites simply unviable to develop. In a little over a month, government will introduce another new tax on new homes in the form of the Building Safety Levy, which will make a host of potential sites unviable at a stroke so the overall environment for home building looks like it will remain tricky in the short term.
“Meanwhile, concerns around interest rates and the economy and a lack of affordable mortgage lending, in particular for young people, is suppressing demand for new homes and so limiting industry’s ability to build them.
“If Government wants to see housing supply increase it has got to look wider than planning and tackle the two major constraints of site viability and affordability. If it does, the industry stands ready to increase output, deliver more private and affordable homes, create jobs and boost growth.”