Research: Planning permissions and completions

There has been growing discussion about the build out rates of major housebuilders and the extent to which there is a gap between planning permissions and completions. Our analysis shows that the number of homes approved for development has far exceeded the number of completions every year for the past six years.

When applying a lag of two years to account for time taken to move from planning approval to completion, the number of completed homes in England between 2013/14 and 2017/18 is 75% of the number of homes granted planning permission between 2011/12 and 2015/16. This is a shortfall of 281,002 homes.

To deliver the number and type of homes we need, Shelter is calling for investment in a new era of social housebuilding and land reform to recalibrate our broken housing delivery models