This means that, excluding the war years of 1940-46, less homes were built last year than in any year since 1924. The year-end total was 162,000 last year compared to 169,100 in 2000.
The House Builders Federation said that this comes at a time when 40,000 more new households are being formed annually than there are new homes to accommodate them.
This could possibly point to why house prices have been rising so quickly as demand is outstripping supply. The Federation said that this could continue because the Government’s housing policy initiative (PPG3), which is aimed at reducing greenfield development and increasing the use of brownfield land, is being used by some local authorities to delay or scrap projects.
This could be exacerbated by the Governments Planning Green Paper, which could reduce total housing output even further by forcing developers to increase their planning gain demands in exchange for planning permission.
A spokesman for the House Builders Federation said: "The cause is three-fold: investment in public housing has fallen steadily since the 1970s. At the same time greater planning restrictions on the use of land for private house building have reduced the ability of developers to make up the shortfall. Now with increasing planning gain demands, developers are being taxed for the privilege of trying to build the homes this country so desperately needs.
"The consequences are already being felt and are set to worsen. The rise in single-person households will exacerbate the problem. Government initiatives to help key workers buy homes of their own - including the recently launched Starter Homes Initiative - have received a great deal of publicity. Unfortunately such mechanisms cannot tackle the fundamental problem of too many people chasing too few homes. Cash help being offered to teachers and other "key" workers, is a short term solution, which can only create further house-price inflation.
"There is no quick fix to this. Only by allowing supply to match demand can the aim of a decent home for all be achieved. Failure to achieve this will exacerbate the number of people living in over-crowded or unsuitable accommodation - a situation that is provoking serious social and economic problems."
