Just 75,000 houses were granted planning permission in the first quarter of 2023 – the lowest figure for Q1 since 2009, during the financial crisis. It’s a decrease of 11% on the same period of last year, whilst the figures for the last three months of 2022 were also down 13% on the year before. Given the government scrapped housing targets at the end of last year and interest rates are rising it is unlikely to improve in the near term…

The figures will no doubt delight NIMBYs in the Tory shires, however the decline in housebuilding wasn’t even confined to these areas. Even regions with higher levels of support for development, such as the North East and West Midlands, saw planning approvals decline. Rishi is off to the Northern Research Group’s conference this afternoon.  These figures should concern the PM as, with a string of recent policy announcements, Labour now looks to be making building a core priority. Planning approvals are 34% lower now than they were 20 years ago…