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House-builders at their busiest since 2007

23 Oct 14 Registration statistics for new homes indicate that house-building is at its highest level since 2007.

Latest numbers from the National House-Building Council (NHBC) show that new home registrations are continuing to rise, up 8% in the third quarter of 2014 compared to the same period last year.

These figures represent the highest year to date figures and the highest Q3 figures since 2007. The private sector continues to be the main driver of growth.

In total, 36,343 new homes were registered with NHBC between July and September this year (28,468 private sector; 7,875 public sector), compared to 33,573 (24,984 private sector; 8,589 public sector) for the same period in 2013. This represents a 14% increase for the private sector, but an 8% fall in the public sector. However, NHBC anticipates that public sector registrations will begin to grow again as the next phase of the government's Affordable Housing Programme has recently been allocated.

NHBC chief executive Mike Quinton said: "We are very encouraged to see that house building is again beginning to show signs of accelerated growth across the UK. Following the dramatic growth in 2013, we saw a period of consolidation in the first half of this year, but our latest data would suggest that the pace of growth is picking up again.

"Our figures show that the sharp housing upturn we have seen over the last couple of years is a genuine broad-based recovery across the whole of the country, with pockets of strong growth in the North East, Yorkshire & Humberside and West Midlands. It is now increasingly apparent that housing growth is no longer London and southeast centric, with these regions beginning to show signs of cooling.

"However we must not lose sight of the fact that the UK still has a chronic shortage of new homes. We have seen over recent weeks that all the main political parties regard housing as an ongoing key issue, reinforcing the fact that the country urgently needs more high quality and affordable new homes."

Full regional breakdown of total new homes registered July-September 2014 by region/country:

Region

July-Sept 2014

July-Sept 2013

England - Regions

North East

1,226

929

North West

2,832

2,487

Merseyside

285

566

Yorkshire & the Humber

2,524

1,917

West Midlands

3,848

2,551

East Midlands

2,719

2,914

Eastern

3,791

3,543

South West

3,425

3,471

Greater London

5,694

5,379

South East

4,951

5,829

Totals for England

31,295

29,586

ScotlandĀ - Councils

3,017

2,759

Wales - Unitary Authorities

1,331

818

Northern IrelandĀ - Counties

635

373

Isle of Man

65

37

Totals for UK

36,343

33,573


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