Search Acumen comments on ONS Housebuilding Statistics September Quarter 2018
Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “We’ve found ourselves in a situation where we’re on track to have built nearly 160,000 new homes in England in 2018, but supply and demand constraints mean we’re in the midst of a housing crisis. The price for an average property is now nearly eight times the value of an average salary – simply, we need to be building smarter.
“So what are we doing wrong? If we are to fix this housing crisis, both public and private organisations need to use all the technology and data available to intelligently improve the planning process. We need to find out not only where we can build, but what kind of dwelling we need to build to satisfy demand – the data is there to paint a fuller picture, we just need to harness it.
“Just last quarter, the Government announced new measures to build 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s. To deliver on this, the current planning system will have to be become much more efficient, and developers will have to take a more nuanced approach in where and what they decide to build.”
