Britain heads for worst house building decade since 1940s

Author: ross sturley cimcig

Britain is heading for the worst house building decade since World War Two, it is reported.

Despite Government efforts to boost house building, completions in England between 2010 and 2019 are set to average out at around 130,000 per year.

This is well short of the 147,000 achieved in the 2000s or the 150,000 of the 1990s, and half of the level in the 1960s and 1970s.

The figures are improved somewhat when you factor in conversions of existing properties, which push the total up – but the total of net additional dwellings is likely to be lower this decade than last.

Robert Colvile, Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, said: "This is not just the consequence of the financial crisis – it is part of a pattern stretching back half a century, in which we have steadily built fewer and fewer new homes.

“But ministers need to take bold action in 2019 to ensure that the 2020s become the decade in which we break this hugely damaging cycle.”

See more from Construction Enquirer at http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2019/01/02/britain-heads-for-worst-house-building-decade-since-1940s/