Almost 100,000 new homes that were “previously stuck in the planning system” were given the green light over the 12 months, the housing department says.  

Experts in its New Homes Accelerator team have unblocked “challenges that were holding back development on scores of large consented sites across the country,” the department says, to ensure that “homes to buy and rent are built more quickly”. 

The New Homes Accelerator unit, established last August, has offered “additional planning capacity and removing regulatory hurdles” in local areas, to speed the delivery of 36,000 new homes across England, which “were not building out as fast as they should have”.     

The housing department adds that the unit has “driven forward planning proposals” for another 63,000 homes working with arms-length bodies and other government departments. 

The team is expected to make “a significant contribution” to the government’s plans to build 1.5 million homes by the end of the current Parliament. 

The housing department has now tasked the unit with fast-tracking six new sites:  

• At Wisley Airfield in Guildford 

• At Hampden Fields in Aylesbury 

• At Comeytrowe Garden Community, also known as Orchard Grove, in Somerset 

• At North Leigh Park in Wigan 

• At Billet Road in Redbridge, London 

• At High Road West in Haringey, London 

The department says the target of the team is to push through “the delivery of over 12,000 homes with at least 25% affordable housing across all sites”. 

Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner says: “We are continuing to take decisive action through our New Homes Accelerator to speed up the delivery of homes, meet our stretching 1.5 million homes target through the Plan for Change, and get spades in the ground to turn the tide on the housing crisis.” 

Earlier this month, total construction output grew by 1.2% in the second three months of the year, compared with the first quarter, according to Office for National Statistics data. 

The data body added that new work lifted by 1.1% over the second quarter, while repair and maintenance increased by 1.4%. 

Hampshire Trust Bank managing director of development finance Neil Leitch said: “A rise in new private housing is good to see, but output is still below where it was before the pandemic, so there is a long way to go. 

“Approvals on paper do not build homes. Unless the firms that do the work are financially stable and have the people they need, those permissions will just sit there. 

“That’s the real risk – approvals without delivery.”