The government's plan to increase the supply of housing the in UK appears to have taken a knock this year as new house building completion rates in 2006 increased by just half a per cent on 2005.
While the number of starts topped 193,000, representing a rise of three per cent, the number of completions only reached 160,230 as the government progressed its plan to increase the availability of affordable homes
The underlying quarterly trend showed an upturn in December following falls in the previous two quarters compared with the year before, according to official figures released today.
David Stubbs, senior economist from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said that the government's efforts were not good enough.
"This caps a disappointing year for housebuilding," he said.
"This [the total number of completions] is 23.5 per cent higher than the recent low of 2001 but remains well below the 209,000 homes that will be needed every year just to keep up with the government's estimates for household growth up to 2026.
"Indeed, they are even further away from the 250,000 houses that the Barker Review estimated are required per annum, to bring long-run real house price inflation in line with the EU average."
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