Housebuilding finally on the rise across the North-East and North Yorkshire
7:10am Friday 22nd November 2013 in News
By Robert Merrick, Parliamentary Correspondent
HOUSEBUILDING is finally on the rise across the region after many years of slump, new figures showed yesterday (Thursday, November 21).
A total of 1,950 homes were started across the North-East and North Yorkshire in the latest three-month period – up from 1,240 in the same period last year.
Among the areas recording a sharp rise were County Durham (from 260 to 370), Middlesbrough (40 to 180), Darlington (20 to 50) and Redcar and Cleveland (30 to 90).
The trend mirrored a badly-needed rise across England, after a period when housebuilding has crashed to its lowest level since the 1920s.
Pointing to 32,230 ‘starts’ in three months, housing minister is Kris Hopkins, said: “Today’s figures show we’re building at the fastest rate since the crash in 2008.
“More people are securing a place on the housing ladder and we’re delivering tens of thousands of affordable homes across the whole country.”
But the statistics also showed a fall in the number of house completions in the region between June and September.
That total fell to 970 from 1,040 in the same three-month period in 2012 and after a disastrous housebuilding record since the Coalition came to power.
Completions were down sharply in County Durham (from 240 to 160), in Stockton-on-Tees (160 to 100) and South Tyneside (110 to 40).
Labour leapt on figures showing that, across England, the number of affordable homes built was 26 per cent lower in 2012-13 (42,830) than in 2011-12 (58,100).
Emma Reynolds, the party’s housing spokeswoman, said: “This is yet more evidence of the Government’s failure to build the homes the country needs and failing to act on the cost-of-living crisis.”
However, those figures were not published for each local authority by the department for communities and local government (DCLG) yesterday.
The rising number of housing starts will help the Coalition fight Labour’s plans to spark a big rise in housebuilding – to 200,000 each year.
Ed Miliband has vowed to give town halls “use it or lose it” powers to levy fees on developers hoarding land with planning permission.
They will also enjoy beefed-up compulsory purchase powers to grab back land that has lain empty for years - despite having been approved for badly-needed homes.
Earlier this year, The Northern Echo revealed that more than 6,000 homes across the North-East and North Yorkshire have approval, yet work has not started.
That included homes in County Durham (1,301), Stockton-on-Tees (871), Sunderland (843), Redcar and Cleveland (667), Ryedale (237) and in Scarborough (523).
The Council of Mortgage Lenders confirmed this week that the number of new mortgages is now at the highest level since 2008, Mr Hopkins pointed out.
