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Approvals Fall to Record Lows According to HBF Housing Pipeline Report
Last year saw planning approvals for homes hit a decade low, according to the Home Builders Federation.
HBF’s latest Housing Pipeline Report, with data from Glenigan, shows that in 2024, only 242,610 units received planning permission, the lowest total for any calendar year since 2014. This is a 2% decrease on 2023 and a 26% drop from the peak of 2019.
This, HBF said, represented a loss of more than 85,000 annual approvals.
HBF also recorded the lowest number of approved sites since it started reporting in 2006. In 2024, 9,776 projects gained permission. And the rolling annual total of approved sites has reached new historic lows for 11 consecutive quarters, “underscoring the ongoing challenges facing the housing sector,” HBF commented.
According to the data, planning approvals must rise 53% to achieve the government’s target of 370,000 new homes per year.
HBF said the low numbers “largely” reflected the previous government’s approach to planning but also the “significant barriers” that remain to housebuilding.
It commended Labour’s “swift action” in tackling deficiencies in the planning system, however, “the constraints on housebuilding are much broader than simply planning”.
Other challenges include – as highlighted by HBF – a lack of affordable mortgage lending affecting demand, particularly for young people; housing associations’ inability to take on affordable housing as part of section 106 agreements, preventing investment in new sites; and proliferating taxes on homes delivery, especially affecting SME housebuilders.
HBF also pointed to “an ongoing resource crisis” within local planning authorities as revealed in its research in January. It said these departments were struggling to cope with the volume of planning applications needed to satisfy housing demand, “adding cost and delay to processing applications to the point where bricks can be laid”.
Looking regionally at HBF’s Pipeline data, most areas witnessed “significant decreases” in planning approvals against 2023. The East Midlands, London and the West Midlands saw notable declines, at -16%, -14% and -11% respectively.
In the East Midlands, the number of projects approved declined the most dramatically, to -17%.
Meanwhile, the North West saw a 25% increase in planning approvals.
HBF noted the government’s “ambitious” initiatives of new towns and giving councils more power to purchase land, but warned that their impact would not be evident, “in most cases for many years”.
Neil Jefferson, HBF’s ceo, said: “The latest planning figures show that housing supply in the short and medium terms is at critical crisis levels.
“Whilst we welcome the scale of the government’s housing ambition and the swift action on planning, the industry’s ability to produce homes is being stifled by a range of issues outside of its control.
“Increasing housing delivery will require much more than just planning reform. Government has to address broader issues like financing for homebuyers and ensuring there are sufficient providers in the market to take on the affordable homes developers are building – and reduce the crippling levels of taxation being planned and imposed that are making development across swathes of the country unviable.
“In reality, planning permissions and housebuilding levels are falling and companies do not have the confidence to invest with SMEs in particular struggling and a growing number unable to continue to operate.
“The industry is keen to press the accelerator and play its part in delivering the homes, but government intervention is urgently needed to enable it to do so.”
