England planning approvals for new homes at record low amid political pressure

Planning approvals for new homes in England fell to a record low in the year ending June 2025, official figures show, underlining the political pressure on Labour to meet its housing pledge. Fewer than 29,000 projects were granted permission by councils in the 12 months, a figure the government called unacceptable as it seeks to accelerate supply to meet its 1.5 million-home target by the next general election. Housing Secretary Steve Reed said fixing the planning system would not happen overnight and pledged to take further steps to speed approvals while protecting building safety.

The latest figures, highlighted by BBC Verify’s housing tracker, show that about 7,000 applications were approved between April and June 2025—the weakest three-month total on record since 1979 and an 8% drop from the same period in 2024. The data indicate that both the number of approvals and the overall number of decisions taken by councils fell, even as a larger share of the cases that were decided were approved. Around three-quarters of decided applications were approved in the year to June 2025, up from about 71% the year before.

Separate data from housing contractor Glenigan suggest 221,000 individual homes were granted permission in the year to June, down from 237,000 in the year to June 2024, reflecting a broader slowdown in planning consent even as some projects move toward construction.

Labour pledged in its manifesto to deliver 1.5 million homes in England by the next general election, which would require an average of roughly 300,000 new homes per year. Reed said the government would go “further and faster” on building homes and outlined a multi-pronged approach, including an overhaul of the Building Safety Regulator’s performance and closer cooperation with London Mayor Sadiq Khan to unlock housing in the capital. The plan builds on earlier reforms such as updated local housing targets announced last December, and a £39 billion investment over 10 years to support social and affordable homes.

Government and industry data diverge on the pace of approvals and the demand side of the market. Ministers have cited the slowdown in new energy performance certificates (EPCs) as a leading indicator of housing activity, arguing the dip partly reflects a lag from the previous Conservative government. EPC activity often slows before a full year of new-home statistics is published. Planning Portal, which handles many housing applications at the local level, reported rising demand for permissions, while cautioned that backlogs could push decisions into later months. Geoff Keal of Planning Portal noted that while inquiries and applications had increased, the time to reach a decision can stretch for several months, and the current wave of approvals could appear later as backlogs clear. Neal Hudson, housing market analyst at BuiltPlace, said Labour had moved quickly with housing policy but that the fundamental problem remained: demand is constrained by high prices and elevated mortgage rates, and the government’s affordable-homes program has not yet delivered enough supply to shift the market.

These dynamics come as the government also seeks to rebalance planning around larger sites and streamline local approvals, while maintaining safeguards around building safety. Officials say the measures, including local targets and potential further reductions in planning barriers, aim to boost throughput and reduce the time from application to decision. Critics, however, warn that without clear demand-side reform and lower financing costs, a boost in approvals may not translate into a surge of new homes in the near term. In the meantime, officials will continue monitoring EPC trends, planning data, and market indicators as they pursue the ambitious target of 1.5 million homes by the next election.

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