New Homes England 2022-23 housebuilding statistics revealed
These new statistics display the housing starts on site and housing completions delivered by Homes England between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023
Housing programmes delivered by Homes England resulted in 36,478 new houses starting on-site and 32,990 houses completed between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023.
- Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme 2016-21 on course to exceed target of 130,000 new homes started
- Proportion of affordable homes started on site was up on the previous year, a result of the maturing of the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) 2021-26, in its second year of delivery
- Momentum of delivery was maintained due to housebuilders’ planned pipeline
- Overall levels of starts and completions were down as a result of the impact of tough economic conditions on housebuilding industry.
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 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, over three-quarters (78 per cent) of starts (28,457) were for affordable homes. This marks an increase of 3 per cent 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 per cent) were for affordable homes, which is a 12 per cent 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 per cent increase on the previous year.
Of the affordable homes completed, 10,250 were for Affordable Rent, a decrease of 27 percent on the previous year, and 9,336 under Intermediate Affordable Housing schemes. The remaining 3,732 were Social Rent completions, up 21 per cent 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.
We will continue to work closely with our partners and DLUHC to apply all our tools, capital and capacity to support delivery of the quality new affordable homes the country needs, in the places that people are proud to call home.
In a move to further support affordable housing providers, Homes England has today announced that grant funding provided through the Government’s Affordable Homes Programme 2021-26 can now be used to support the delivery of replacement homes, alongside new affordable homes, as part of wider estate regeneration plans.
The change has been agreed with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and HM Treasury, and is part of the Agency’s wider efforts to help bolster the affordable housing sector and maintain housing supply.
Notes to Editors
National housing statistics are published twice a year showing half and full year starts and completions as part of planned national statistical releases. The next release is half year starts and completions, which are due to be published in November/December 2023. Housing figures cannot be provided outside of these official releases.
Homes England programmes are funded by central government to enable private registered providers, house builders, community groups and local authorities to deliver affordable housing.
This release presents the housing starts on site and housing completions delivered by Homes England between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023 in England excluding London (for both the current and historical series), with the exception of the Build to Rent (BTR) and the Home Building Fund – Short Term Fund (HBF-STF) programmes which are administered by Homes England on behalf of the Greater London Authority (GLA) and where delivery covers all of England including London.
Since April 2012, the Mayor of London has had oversight of strategic housing, regeneration and economic development in London. This means that Homes England no longer publishes housing starts on site and completions for London, except where Homes England is administering a programme on behalf of the GLA.
The list of programmes included in these totals are detailed in the official housing statistics report, which can be found here.
“Affordable Tenure TBC” refers to units that have reached the start on site milestone but where the tenure of these units has not yet been specified. This was introduced as a flexibility for Strategic Partnerships to enable them to determine tenure close to or at the point of completion. These starts will be restated under their specified tenure headings in future national statistics updates once the tenure has been established at completion.
Homes England also manages the Help to Buy equity loan scheme in England (including in London on behalf of the GLA). However, the completions are reported by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and, therefore, are excluded from these statistics.