A recovery in housebuilding following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic looks to have stalled, Government figures suggest.
Some 234,397 new homes were supplied in England in 2022/23, broadly unchanged on 234,462 for the previous 12 months.
The total includes 212,568 new builds and 22,163 properties that saw a change of use from non-domestic to residential.
There were 4,499 conversions between houses and flats and 641 net other gains, along with 5,474 demolitions, according to data published by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
The number of new homes supplied in England – defined as “net additional dwellings” – hit 248,591 in 2019/20, the highest for any financial year so far this century, before falling to 217,754 in 2020/21 during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the 2019 general election the Conservative Party renewed its commitment to a target of 300,000 new homes per year in England by the mid-2020s.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has been contacted for comment.
Figures for net additional dwellings are considered the most comprehensive measure of the housing supply in England and are based on local authority estimates of gains and losses each year.
They show the number of homes that were classified as new builds in 2022/23, 212,568, was up slightly from 211,665 in 2021/22, but was below the pre-pandemic level of 219,120 in 2019/20.
