propertytalk Live! - Collapse in planning permissions exacerbates already acute housing shortage

propertytalk Live! - Collapse in planning permissions exacerbates already acute housing shortage

Local Authority planning permissions for house building continued to head firmly downwards in Q4 of 2010, It is the third successive quarterly fall and leaves permissions at less than half the rate being granted four years ago.

Across Great Britain, just 33,000 homes were approved for construction in the last three months of 2010 - 9% down on the previous quarter and 22% down on a year ago.

The latest HBF Housing Pipeline report reveals social housing was hardest hit with only 5,500 approvals - a new low for the survey and particularly concerning with 5 million people already languishing on Local Authority housing waiting lists.

HBF released the report just days after Government published its 2010 housing statistics that showed the number of new homes completed in England in 2010 slumped 13% on the previous year - itself the lowest peacetime number on record since 1923.

The implications of the collapse in permissions are stark and exacerbate an already acute housing crisis. Currently the country has a housing shortfall estimated to be a million homes, with people being forced to stay with their parents for longer and first time buyer levels at an all time low.

Permissions granted for homes typically take up to three years to build. So the full implications of this drop will not be felt for some time. However, with household formation projections showing the need for England to build around 232,000 homes a year until 2033, and 2010's total at just 103,000 - there is obvious potential for the crisis to deepen.