It comes as analysis by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) found just 1,220 sites gained private housing granted planning approval across England in the first quarter of 2026, the lowest since the dataset began in 2006. This is down from around 2,000 in 2022 and nearly 3,000 in 2017.

The HBF’s latest Housing Pipeline report, based on data from Glenigan, reports just 408 sites for 10 homes or more received approval, also the lowest quarterly figure since 2006.

In total, approval for just over 54,000 homes was granted in the first three months of this year — significantly below the level needed to achieve the government’s ambition for an annual run rate of around 300,000.

The trade body suggests that while the government’s reforms of the planning system are welcomed, the huge increases in taxes and regulatory costs layered on to development over recent years have made many potential home building sites unviable for development.

The HBF estimates that the cost of delivering a new house has increased on average by £76,000 since 2020 with even higher costs for new apartments.

Alongside this, industry’s ability to invest in new sites has been eroded by suppressed demand as a result of higher mortgage rates and a lack of Help to Buy-style state support.

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Neil Jefferson, chief executive at the HBF, said: “While the government’s planning reforms have been positive, because of challenging housing market conditions and the long-term assault on housing viability, the new and improved planning system is still not delivering.

“These positive moves to boost housing supply are being thwarted by the growing level of taxation and cost of policy requirements that are making many sites simply unviable to develop.

“In a little over a month, the government will introduce another new tax on new homes in the form of the Building Safety Levy, which will make a host of potential sites unviable at a stroke so the overall environment for home building looks like it will remain tricky in the short term.

“Meanwhile, concerns around interest rates and the economy and a lack of affordable mortgage lending, in particular for young people, is suppressing demand for new homes and so limiting industry’s ability to build them.”

If the government wants to see housing supply increase, Jefferson suggests it has got to look wider than planning and tackle the two major constraints of site viability and affordability.

He added: “If it does, the industry stands ready to increase output, deliver more private and affordable homes, create jobs and boost growth.”