Housebuilding is recovering, official figures suggest.

Some 35,710 homes were started in July to September 2020 – a 111 per cent increase on the previous quarter – while, 45,000 homes were completed in the same period – 185 per cent up.

‘Today’s figures show that the number of new homes developers have started building have more than doubled compared to the previous quarter and the number of completed homes has almost tripled’, commented Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick.

‘This reflects the Government’s commitment throughout the pandemic to support industry to enable construction sites to remain open and operate safely.

‘We extended planning permission deadlines and flexible working hours on sites so that builders, architects and developers have been able to continue working, while following public health advice. In turn this has protected millions of jobs, from builders, through to estate agents and carpenters’.

The minister reiterated that the housing industry was considered key to economic recovery, ‘which is why we’re investing £12bn in affordable housing, providing £400m to build more homes on brownfield land, and investing £7.1bn for a new National Home Building Fund over the next 4 years, unlocking up to 860,000 homes’.