House building target in disarray

House building rates have almost halved during the past year, pushing them to their lowest level for three decades according to government figures. Only 22,000 homes were started in England between July and September, 48 per cent fewer than during the same period last year, and substantially fewer than the previous quarter which saw the number of homes completed down 18 per cent. Housing spokespeople from the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties said the government’s pledge to build three million homes by 2020 was ‘crumbling’ and called the target a ‘pipe dream’. At the current rate of house building, the government would miss the target by seven years.