CLG released the latest figures for housing starts were released a few days ago.
There were 28,590 starts (seasonally adjusted). According to the press release:
- 13% higher than last quarter
- 84% higher than the March 2009 trough
- 42% below there March 2007 peak
CLG provide more comparisons but all those numbers left me a little dazed. If you take a 10 year pre-recession average of Q2 you get around 42,000 starts. So I guess we should view that figure as about 2/3 of the 10 year average.
There are some reports that scrapping the regional spatial strategies has led to plans for 84,000 houses being reviewed or cut. Of course, not all of these may not have been planned for the same year, but if these figures are right you would expect them to start showing up in the Q3 figures.
CEP Urban and Spatial Programme Blog (formerly SERC)
