Over 100,000 planned new homes scrapped

More than 100,000 planned new homes have been scrapped by councils since the formation of the coalition government earlier this year, largely due to the abolishment of housebuilding targets.

The former Labour government had set a target of three million new homes in England by 2020, but this was ditched by ministers.

The figures come from the National Housing Federation. The organisation report that among the housing projects to be abolished, 10,750 planned new homes in North Somerset have been binned, along with 9,600 new homes in Bristol and 9,200 new homes in North Hertfordshire and Stevenage.

Dr Peter Williams of housing watchdog NHPAU told the press: "The likelihood is we will see fewer new homes being built. The prospects for first-time buyers look extremely difficult and not likely to get better in the near future."

Housing minister Grant Shapps has defended the coalition government by slamming Labour for their poor housebuilding record. He claims that many property schemes under the Labour administration were flawed and under funded and said: "Top-down targets and bloated bureaucracy haven't worked."

But this week Labour leadership hopeful Ed Balls said that he wanted to see hundreds of thousands more new homes built in this country and claimed that there is the budget to see this done.

In an article for the LabourList website, he commented: "The public finances are around £12bn healthier than forecast at the time of the budget. The coalition government wants to use the extra money to pay down the deficit faster.

"I think that at a time when the economy is still so fragile and other countries are already tipping back into recession, we should instead use that money to boost construction jobs and build new homes. By using half of that £12bn, a £6bn investment this year and next, we could build 100,000 extra affordable homes which it's been estimated would create up to 750,000 new jobs, directly in the construction industry and indirectly in the supply chain including thousands of apprenticeships for young people."