The National House-Building Council's (NHBC's) latest statistics show the third successive rolling quarter-on-quarter rise in the number of applications from builders to start new homes in the UK, providing further evidence of a mild recovery in house-building production.

19,286 applications were received by NHBC from the combined private and public sectors in the three months to the end of May 2009 - eight per cent higher compared to the previous rolling quarter February to April 2009 (17,859) and 19% higher than January to March this year (16,232).

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Although NHBC figures show that house-building activity is still extremely low compared to the same three month period a year ago, the drop in applications to build is becoming less pronounced. NHBC figures for the three months to the end of May show a 43% reduction in the number of applications compared to the same period a year ago, while in the three months to the end of March and April 2009, the year-on-year drop in applications was 57% and 53% respectively. Imtiaz Farookhi, NHBC Chief Executive, said: "NHBC's latest figures point to further improvements in house-building production, albeit from an extremely low base.

"Any recovery is likely to be fragile in the short term and volumes in the next few months will be key in determining if this recovery is sustainable. The significance of these figures is that they suggest we may now have passed the lowest point in housing production for the current cycle."

(CD/NS)