The government’s housing and regeneration agency has enabled 37,632 new homes to be built this year — while this is an 8% increase on last year’s results, it falls 15% short of the 44,275 target.

It also failed to meet its goal for affordable homes, having supported the completion of only 26,953 out of the total 34,349 target.

According to the report, Homes England anticipated a 27% increase compared to last year’s performance, as it expected a significant number of affordable housing projects, which had already been started on site, to be completed.

However, the agency’s partners came across challenges in delivering completions due to delays and access to labour supply and materials, which added around 20 weeks to delivery times, thus reducing capacity to complete homes in the original Q3 and Q4 timescales.

“Capacity issues in the planning system, nutrient neutrality challenges, and material and labour shortages with increased associated costs have caused delays to housing provisions, impacting the agency’s delivery against its KPIs,” stated Peter Denton, CEO at Homes England.

The report also revealed failures in meeting its unlocked housing capacity target — Homes England unlocked 58,993 homes through infrastructure and land, 38% lower than its 94,863 goal.

According to the agency, this is due to a number of infrastructure programmes coming to the end of the funding deployment phase and moving to portfolio management.

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The report also highlighted issues with local authorities' ability to stick to project times and budgets, due to hold ups to planning decisions and statutory consultation periods, as well as rising material costs and supply chain disruption.

Meanwhile, the total number of starts the agency supported was 38,562, missing its intended target by 21%, despite the imminent end of the Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes programme driving delivery partners to start on site.

The figures for households supported into home ownership were not included in the report, as Homes England is still waiting for the final Help to Buy statistics to be released.

Looking ahead, Denton said that the agency’s remit was set to expand, with an enhanced focus on regeneration and placemaking.

“This means we will not only deliver the homes this country needs, but we will also work with partners to revitalise run-down and derelict sites in order to bring confidence, pleasure and pride back to our town centres.

“With a renewed focus on regeneration, a more place-based way of working will be central, bringing together all our tools and capabilities to support local leaders to deliver their vision for their towns, cities and rural communities.

“While boosting housing supply across England remains an important focus for the agency, our role is increasingly about more than making homes happen — it is about creating sustainable, thriving places that foster a sense of community and pride and can better connect people to employment opportunities and provide the amenities they need.”