New figures have revealed over 189,000 new homes have been built in the past year.

The latest Government housing supply report states the number of new homes has risen 11% this year, contributing towards its one million new homes target by 2020.

Out of the 189,650 new additions to the housing supply; 163,940 were new build homes and 30,600 were gains from change of use between non-domestic and residential. Due to planning reform, housebuilders also increased office to resi conversions to 12,824.

Overall, the number of new build homes marks a 38% increase from 2013.

Housing Minister Gavin Barwell said: "We promised to turbocharge house building so more people can have the security of their own home, and that is exactly what we are doing with the biggest increase in the number of new homes in many years."

With planning permissions now running at around 275,000 a year, the Home Builders Federation (HBF) said this provides a "strong forward indicator" of future supply.


Stewart Baseley, HBF's Chief Executive, said: "These figures provide the best evidence to date as to how much house builders have ramped up housing supply. The Government's ambitious target to build one million homes over the course of this parliament is now within reach.

"In response to the positive measures introduced by Government in recent years, such as Help to Buy, huge increases in output have been delivered.  Providing Government continues to create an environment within which the industry can operate and grow house builders will continue to increase delivery of new homes."

However, Chief Executive of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB, Brian Berry, said there is "still plenty of room for more radical solutions to meet the one million target".

"The Government needs to turbo-charge the SME house building sector," he said.

"Smaller firms, once the main drivers of house building in this country, have become only marginal players in the market, which has hampered the capacity of the industry. The Government has already recognised the importance of revitalising SMEs through its attempts to improve the availability of finance for smaller firms, but much more can be done.

"In particular, we need to see a renewed focus on enabling planning permission for more small sites, which are the bread and butter of SME builders. We're hopeful that the Government will listen to the voice of SME builders in its forthcoming Housing White Paper and put measures to enable more small scale development at the heart of the country's house building strategy."

(LM/MH)