Backlog of over 400,000 houses ‘waiting to be built’ A backlog of more than 400,000 homes in England and Wales is still waiting to be built despite being given […]

A backlog of more than 400,000 homes in England and Wales is still waiting to be built despite being given planning permission, research has shown.

The logjam of housing has jumped by 16 per cent in the last year alone, the study by the Local Government Association reveals.

It comes as a separate report by the influential Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that just one in four young people from middle income backgrounds now own a house. This has dropped from two in three owning their home 20 years ago.

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May’s mission

The figures are likely to heap yet more pressure on Theresa May, who has personally pledged to “fix the broken housing system”.

Towards the end of last year, the Prime Minister said it was her “mission to build the homes the country needs and take personal charge of the Government’s response” to the housing crisis.

According to the LGA, in 2016/17 the total number of unbuilt houses with planning permission in England and Wales was estimated at 423,544, up from 365,146 in 2015/16.

Council chiefs now suggest it takes on average 40 months from when housing developments are given planning permission to when they are completed – eight months longer than in 2013/14.

Cllr Martin Tett, LGA housing spokesman, called for councils to start building houses once more.

“Our national housing shortage is one of the most pressing issues we face,” he said.

” We have no chance of housing supply meeting demand unless councils can get building again.”

Wake-up call

In a separate study, the IFS revealed that those born in the late 1980s are “much less likely to be homeowners in their late 20s than their immediate predecessors”.

The research shows that in 1995–96, 65 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds with incomes in the middle 20 per cent for their age owned their own home. But by 2015–16, just 27 per cent of that group were homeowners.

Shadow housing minister John Healy said: “This research should be a wake-up call for Conservative ministers. After almost eight years of failure on housing, the Government is still failing to tackle the fundamental problems with our broken housing market.”