The latest research by the property developer, StripeHomes, has looked at which councils are rolling up their sleeves and doing their bit when it comes to the delivery of housing within their local areas.
StripeHomes crunched Government figures on indicators of new housing supply looking specifically at affordable and council housing delivered by local authorities over the last five years.
The figures show that 10,180 homes have been delivered via local councils across England over the last five years. 2,930 of which have been in London, with the South East (1,330), West Midlands (1,270) and South West (1,160) also seeing some of the highest levels of delivery.
The worst council performance has been in Yorkshire and the Humber, with just 310 homes delivered in five years by local authorities in the region. The East of England has also seen a low level of housing delivered in the last five years at 600, as has the North West (780).
In terms of the best performing, Camden and Plymouth council share the top spot having delivered 480 homes since 2015. Hackney Council has also performed well (410), along with Birmingham (390), Stockport (340), Wandsworth (330), Newcastle upon Tyne (320), Ealing, Woking and Nottingham.
The data also shows that as many as 205 local authorities haven’t delivered a single property over the last five years.
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Managing Director of StripeHomes, James Forrester, commented: “It’s important to give credit where it’s due and local authority housing delivery plays a very important role in the wider DNA of the property market, providing homes to those that arguably need them most desperately.
“However, it’s fair to say that more could and should be done to increase the delivery of local authority housing. As is always the case with the government, a string of excuses is sure to follow any questions around the inadequate delivery housing by individual local authorities. Some may argue that their performance is proportionate with the size of their local area, others have slimed their way out of taking responsibility by placing the handing the task off to the private sector.
“However, the statistics don’t lie and shine a light on those doing what they can to build more homes and those that have neglected the crisis on their doorstep completely.
“We won’t name and shame the local authorities to have done this as we’re sure they have very good reasons as to why they’ve turned their back on delivering homes but for 205 local authorities to have seen no homes delivered via this route since 2015 says a lot about the problem at hand.
“The process itself needs a radical overhaul as leaving the private sector completely accountable provides a scapegoat for local councils when targets are not met while allowing politicians to tackle housing problems also doesn’t work.”
