The number of private housing developments winning planning permission in England has fallen to the lowest level recorded in a dataset stretching back to 2006, adding to evidence that the development pipeline remains too weak to support the government’s housing targets.
Data published by the Home Builders Federation shows 1,220 private-sector housing projects of three or more homes secured approval during the first quarter of 2026. That was 14% lower than the final quarter of 2025 and 17% below the same period a year earlier.
Just over 54,000 homes received planning approval across all categories during the quarter. On private-sector projects, 46,547 units were approved, 12% fewer than in the preceding three months and broadly unchanged from a year earlier.
Permission was granted for 216,141 homes during the latest 12 months, which the HBF calculates is 58% of the combined annual planning requirement of 370,000 generated by the National Planning Policy Framework.
The figures are running well below the level needed to sustain annual housing additions at the government’s desired rate. They have also weakened despite a series of planning changes intended to make the system more supportive of development.
Ministers have increased housing targets, strengthened expectations on local authorities, and are now preparing a stronger presumption in favour of higher-density development around well-connected railway stations.
The HBF argues that planning reform addresses only part of the development problem. It estimates that the cost of delivering a new house has increased by an average of £76,000 since 2020 as taxes, regulation, infrastructure obligations, building-safety measures, labour, materials, and other requirements have accumulated.
Apartments face additional pressures because more complex construction, common areas, lifts, and building-safety requirements can make them materially more expensive than lower-rise housing.
Neil Jefferson, chief executive of the HBF, said the “new and improved planning system is still not delivering”, arguing that site viability and affordability for buyers also need attention.
Only 408 sites of ten homes or more were approved during the first quarter, 13% fewer than a year earlier. The number of larger sites securing consent each quarter has roughly halved over the past decade.
Larger developments account for most new housing supply. An increase in very small developments cannot compensate for a sustained reduction in projects capable of delivering dozens or hundreds of homes.
Planning permission also does not guarantee construction. A developer can secure consent but delay or abandon a scheme if expected selling prices do not cover land, building costs, finance, infrastructure, taxation, and regulatory requirements.
Mortgage affordability remains another constraint. Higher borrowing costs reduce the price buyers can support and affect demand particularly among first-time purchasers. That can force developers to slow construction or use bulk sales to housing associations and institutional landlords to manage inventory.
A more predictable planning system can reduce development risk, but it cannot make a financially marginal site profitable by itself. The housing market still has to absorb the resulting homes at prices sufficient to support the capital required to build them.
The forthcoming Building Safety Levy will add another cost. The industry has argued that the charge could make some sites unviable, particularly where margins are already compressed by affordable-housing obligations and infrastructure contributions.
The latest figures therefore expose a gap between planning ambition and the commercial development pipeline. Policy can designate more land and improve the probability of consent, but output will not accelerate materially unless sufficient projects also pass the financial tests required to move into construction.
With annual permissions running at little more than half the level implied by national targets, a sustained recovery will require both more approvals and a larger proportion of consented sites remaining economically viable after planning has been secured.
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