Labour's strong start wasted if wider problems not addressed - HBF

Despite a positive start to the Labour government’s term in office, housing delivery continues to fall and is “well short” of what is needed to achieve the target of 1.5 million new homes, according to the Home Builders Federation.

HBF has released a report: One Year On: Progress Report on Housing Delivery Since the General Election, which finds that while early planning reforms were a welcome relief to industry, broader policy and delivery challenges, especially on the demand side, have not been addressed “and are now seriously constraining the sector’s ability to increase supply”.

Planning policy is the only policy area the report identifies as achieving “significant progress”. HBF’s publication “scorecards” the government in six policy areas: national planning policy; the planning process; affordable housing; solutions for nutrient and water neutrality; expanding the workforce and emerging issues impacting the industry.

According to forward-looking indicators, the report finds that housing delivery continues to decline. Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) registrations reveal that 205,000 new homes were registered in the year to March 2025, compared to 212,000 in the previous year.

And HBF pointed to the latest council taxbase data figures, showing that in England, the increase of 213,000 …