New build application increase 'not enough'

Building applications for new houses are on the rise and have increased by four per cent in the last quarter, according to a new report.

There were over 24,000 applications made in the third quarter of the year, according to figures from the National House-Building Council (NHBC).

However, this should not be seen as the "beginning of the end for the housing crisis," warned Brian Berry, director of external affairs at the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), despite admitting the NHBC figures offered "some encouragement".

Mr Berry claimed that decades of under-production have left an accumulated backlog, meaning new building projects will need to increase by a much larger number to meet demand.

"In terms of stages to recovery, we need to get building back to where it was," he said.

"Then [we need to] raise it again to get it to keep pace with demand then raise it once again in order to begin to tackle the accumulated backlog of supply built up over decades of under production."

Mr Berry concluded that the government has failed to properly address the supply and demand issue in the past and warned that the backlog will only continue to grow while production is allowed to remain so far behind.

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