Housing Solicitors

New figures show that the number of new homes in the UK has risen by its highest level in eight years, with the number of new homes built rising by 11% in the last year.

The figures have been collated since the banking crash of 2007-2008 – and the rise in the number of new homes being built has been welcomed by Housing Minister Gavin Barwell as the third consecutive year-on-year increase in the number of new homes being built across Britain.

The figures mean more than 893,000 additional homes have now been delivered since 2010.

The 189,650 net additions over the last year include 163,940 new build homes, 30,600 gains from change of use between non-domestic and residential, 4,760 from conversions between houses and flats and 780 other gains.

Housing Minister Gavin Barwell said:

“We promised to turbo-charge house building, so more people can have the security of their own home – and that is exactly what we are doing, with the biggest increase in the number of new homes in many years.

“We know there is more to do to ensure the housing market works for everyone and not just the privileged few – and we will be setting our further details in our housing White Paper shortly.”

The government has recently announced a £3 billion Home Building Fund, which will help build more than 25,000 new homes this Parliament and up to 225,000 in the longer term.

An additional £2 billion is also being made available to help speed up delivery of homes on surplus public sector land.

The Neighbourhood Planning Bill is currently going through Parliament and will support house building by speeding up processes and strengthening neighbourhood planning.

The Bill will further strengthen neighbourhood planning to give even more power to local people, as well as improving the use and discharge of planning conditions, especially pre-commencement conditions.

The Bill will also continue the reforms of compulsory purchase to make the process clearer, fairer and faster for all those involved – and will ensure better monitoring of the impact of permitted development rights on housing supply.

The new figures were published on Tuesday (15/11/16) in the Housing supply: net additional dwellings, England: 2015 to 2016, which estimates changes in the size of the dwelling stock in England due to new house building completions, conversions (for example a house into flats), changes of use (for example a shop into a house), demolitions and other changes to the housing stock.


Duncan Lewis Housing Solicitors

Duncan Lewis housing solicitors can advise on a wide range of housing law, including advising developers and self builders on planning permissions and planning appeals.

There are Duncan Lewis offices across England and Wales and our housing team is also able to advise on:

• Debt management for homeowners


• Disrepair of rented property


• Housing Benefit


• Housing possession


• Landlords’ obligations


• Landlord and tenant disputes


• Lease extensions


• Local Authority housing


• Mortgage repossession


• Notice to quit


• Nuisance neighbours


• Right to Buy


• Right to Rent checks


• Tenancy agreements


• Unlawful eviction.