IN Brief:
- Planning permission was granted for 45,315 homes in England during Q2 2026, the lowest quarterly total since 2012.
- Approvals across the 12 months to Q2 fell to 214,515 homes, down 8% year on year and 36% below the 2017 peak.
- Just 1,234 projects of three or more homes were approved during the quarter, the lowest figure on record.
Home Builders Federation figures show that planning permission was granted for 45,315 new homes in England during the second quarter of 2026, the lowest quarterly total recorded since 2012 and a 21% fall from the preceding three months.
The latest Housing Pipeline report, based on Glenigan data, also shows that 214,515 homes received permission during the 12 months to the end of Q2. That was the lowest annual total since 2013, 8% below the previous year and 36% below the 2017 peak.
The contraction is also visible in the number of developments progressing through the planning system. Just 1,234 projects containing three or more homes were approved during the quarter, down 12% from Q1 and the lowest quarterly figure in the dataset. Across the latest 12 months, 5,783 projects of that size received approval, also a record low.
Larger developments account for much of the reduction in prospective housing supply. Permissions covering sites of more than 10 homes fell 21% quarter on quarter to 39,689 units between April and June and were 14% below the equivalent period of 2025. Approvals for private homes fell by 19% from the previous quarter and by 15% year on year.
The annual permissions total represents 58% of the 370,000 homes a year that HBF says need to obtain permission to support delivery of 300,000 net additional homes annually. Planning approval is not the same as construction output, but a sustained decline narrows the pool of sites from which future starts can emerge.
The figures arrive against a difficult development backdrop. Weak sales demand, mortgage affordability, construction costs and new regulatory obligations are all influencing viability, while HBF estimates that the cost of delivering a new house has increased by an average of £76,000 since 2020, with higher additional costs for apartments.
Neil Jefferson, chief executive at the Home Builders Federation, said the figures showed “a housing pipeline being squeezed to historically low levels”, arguing that rising taxes, costs and policy requirements were making more sites unviable while weak demand restricted investment in new development.
For contractors, subcontractors and suppliers, the significance lies in what happens after the planning system. A permission establishes neither a start date nor certainty that a project will be built, but a smaller consented pipeline reduces the number of schemes available to move into procurement and construction once finance, sales rates and other commercial conditions permit.
The split between project numbers and housing units also shows how strongly delivery depends on larger schemes. Across the year to Q2, 11,764 projects were approved in total, with schemes of one or two homes accounting for around half of all projects. Larger sites still deliver the overwhelming majority of units, so falls in major schemes have a disproportionate effect on future housing output.
That matters to businesses whose workloads depend on volume development rather than individual plots. Groundworks, structural systems, façades, roofing, mechanical and electrical services and fit out packages all depend on the rate at which consented projects are converted into starts.
The latest quarterly decline follows an already subdued first half of the year. Housing industry data has repeatedly shown weak consent levels, but the Q2 figures push the quarterly volume below the previous lows recorded over the past decade. The number of projects containing three or more homes is now lower than at any earlier point in the dataset.
The government has announced further support for first time buyers as it seeks to stimulate effective demand, a move welcomed by HBF. The federation argues that measures on the buyer side need to be accompanied by action on development viability, including the cumulative effect of taxes, levies and regulatory costs.
Among those costs is the Building Safety Levy, due to take effect in October. HBF estimates that it will add around £2,320 to the cost of delivering a typical new home, while its recent survey found 36% of small and medium sized housebuilders were already delaying, redesigning or cancelling schemes in anticipation of the levy.
Planning reform can increase the theoretical supply of developable land, but permissions still have to pass through viability, finance, building control and procurement before activity reaches site. The Q2 figures show the front end of that process contracting at the same time as government policy seeks a substantial increase in annual housing delivery.
The next measure will be whether demand support and planning reforms translate into more applications and permissions during the second half of the year. For the construction market, the immediate number remains 45,315 homes approved during Q2, alongside the lowest recorded quarterly count of larger housing projects.
