Planning applications in England fall to record low in housing blow
Planning applications in England have fallen to their lowest level in at least 16 years, according to figures published this week by the levelling up department that highlight the scale of the country’s housing crisis.
Local authorities received fewer applications to build new buildings or improve old ones in 2022 than at any point since before 2006, the earliest year for which the government provides statistics.
Rough sleeping in England is on the rise for the first time in five years, and experts say the lack of new planning applications means the housing shortfall will get worse over the coming years.
The figures add weight to a recent study by the Home Builders Federation, which predicted England’s housebuilding levels would soon fall to their lowest level since the second world war.
Paul Smith, the managing director of the Strategic Land Group, a consultancy, said: “The uncertainty around where the planning system is heading and what it will look like is a significant contributory factor in this fall. Local housing plans are not being made, and if plans are not being made then applications will not be submitted and developments will not get built.”
Matthew Pennycook, the shadow housing minister, said: “These statistics provide yet more evidence that Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove have set in train a collapse in housebuilding across England, with all the harmful social and economic consequences that will entail. Labour are now the only party serious about boosting the supply of new homes to buy and rent.”
The data, which was released without publicity on Thursday, shows that local authorities received 409,459 planning applications in 2022, down nearly 14% on the previous year.
The number of planning applications being
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