Amidst all the furore over the Prime Minister’s proposed Brexit deal, the latest figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government were released to minimal fanfare. A good time to bury bad news perhaps? For the figures would seem to indicate that their objective of reaching the target of building 300,000 new houses per annum is now no more than a pipe-dream.

There was a mere two percent increase in the number of extra homes built and created last year. The 222,190 net additions in 2017-18 resulted from 195,290 new build homes and 29,720 gains from converting non-domestic use to residential use, where shops, for example, have been re-purposed. You will recall that the target was 300,000 homes to be created every year to meet the UK’s housing shortage.

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