<p><span>Permissions were granted for almost 370,000 new homes in 2018, the second highest annual total on record, according to the latest Housing Pipeline report by the Home Builders Federation and Glenigan released today (May 2).</span><br/></p> <p><span>Last year, housebuilders had a form of planning permission granted for 369,417 homes. At the same time this was slightly down on 2017’s 371,878.</span></p><p><span>HBF said the figure demonstrated housebuilders’ continued commitment to “deliver further increases in housing supply in the years ahead” and invest in land and site approvals despite the uncertain economic and political backdrop. The numbers represent permissions that will largely be built over the next two to five years.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"></span></p> <p><span>It added that housing supply had grown 78% over the past five years with 222,000 homes added to the housing stock last year. But the total was “some way short” of the number of homes needed, with the government expecting 300,000 homes to be built by the mid-2020s.</span></p> <p><span>HBF pointed out the efforts the industry had made in recent years to recruit and train to ensure both the volume and quality of homes, and the encouraging results of the latest customer satisfaction survey which showed that “quality and …