London planning permission approvals for new houses soar

 

A surge in planning approvals for new houses in London has lifted the prospects for building.

 

London boroughs granted planning permission to 11,870 homes during the first three months of the year, estate agent Stirling Ackroyd said today.

 

If that rate continued, 47,460 homes would be given planning permission this year. 

 

This annualised rate is 20,000 more homes per year than the rate in the last three months of 2014. 

 

“New homes are on the way. Having stuttered for so long, London has developed a clear housing deficit. If this pipeline of new property comes to fruition, it will represent exactly the heavy-duty, industrial scale of response needed to start filling the housing hole,” said Andrew Bridges, managing director of Stirling Ackroyd. Yet Bridges warned more needs to be done, with London needing 57,000 new homes a year.

 

“These figures are obviously welcome news for the housebuilding industry and reflect the current high levels of activity in London,”the National House Building Council’s Neil Jefferson told City A.M. But Jefferson said registrations, which happen before building, are yet to take off.

 

“We must not forget that we have a long way to go before the country is building the levels of homes that we so desperately need."