Big rise in number of new homes starting to be built in Ashfield this year
Work started on an increased number of new homes in Ashfield earlier this year, 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 120 new homes started being built in Ashfield in the three months to March – up 71 per cent from about 70 over the same period the previous year.
All of those were started by private enterprises.
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 the AFP’s funding on building social rent homes, but called for further measures to end the ongoing housing emergency.
She continued: "Now they must go further to end it completely.
"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 90 new homes were completed in Ashfield in the three months to March – up from 70 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."