400 per cent: Huge rise in number of new homes starting to be built in Broxtowe this year
The number of new homes starting to be built in Broxtowe this year has gone up be 400 per cent, recent figures suggest.
Ahead of last year's General Election, Labour had pledged it would ‘get Britain building again’ and deliver 1.5m new homes over this Parliament.
While the number of new build dwelling starts increased significantly in England this year, the Local Government Association (LGA) called for increased support to enable councils ‘to build more affordable, good quality homes quickly and at scale’.
Figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) suggest around 150 new homes started being built in Broxtowe in the three months to March – up 400 per cent from about 30 over the same period the previous year.
Of those, 120 were started by private enterprises and 30 by housing associations.
These figures are rounded to the nearest 10, and may be subject to revision.
Across England, some 28,180 new homes started to be built in the three months to March.
It was down nine per cent from the previous quarter, but up 22 per cent on the year before.
In its election manifesto, Labour had vowed to support councils and housing associations to expand their housing stock and ‘make a greater contribution to affordable housing supply’.
While the number of new build dwellings started by housing associations increased this year, from around 6,050 in the three months to March 2024 to 6,480 over the same period this year, fewer homes started being built by local authorities, from about 630 last year to 200 this year.
Coun Adam Hug, LGA housing spokesperson, said: "Local government shares ambitions to boost housebuilding and work hard with communities and developers to deliver new sites.
"Private developers have a key role in solving our chronic housing shortage but they cannot build the homes needed each year on their own.
"Councils need to be empowered to be able to build more affordable, good quality homes quickly and at scale."
Labour had also pledged to make changes to the Affordable Homes Programme (AFP) to ensure it delivers more social rent homes from existing funding.
Mairi MacRae, director of campaigns and policy at Shelter,, said: "For decades, successive Governments haven’t built enough social homes but instead prioritised so called ‘affordable homes’, like shared ownership, which are out of reach for people on low incomes.”
She welcomed the Government's continued commitment to focus the majority of the AFP’s funding on building social rent homes, but called for further measures to end the ongoing housing emergency.
She continued: "Set a clear overall social rent target, back councils to build, get tough on developers and ramp up building to 90,000 social rent homes a year."
The figures also show around 30 new homes were completed in Broxtowe in the three months to March – down from 40 over the same period the year before.
An MHCLG spokesperson said: "We are taking decisive action to get Britain building again and delivering the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation backed by £39bn investment, helping to drive UK housebuilding to its highest level in over 40 years.
"We are also taking urgent action to end homelessness, by providing £1bn for crucial homelessness services this year so councils can support people faster."