Housebuilding must be trebled to 500,000 every year to match the demand generated by soaring immigration, study warns

• Centre for Policy Studies says 515,000 new homes needed in England last year
• This is much higher than the 178,000 homes actually built in England in 2022
• Number of homes fell short of the number needed by 1.34m over the past decade

Housebuilding needs to almost treble to keep pace with the demand generated by soaring immigration, a study warns today.

Research by the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) suggests at least 515,000 new homes would have been required in England last year to meet the needs of a growing population.

The figure is far in excess of the Government target of building 300,000 homes a year and almost treble the 178,000 homes actually completed in England in 2022.

Karl Williams, deputy research director at the CPS, said the surge in net migration, which jumped to a record 745,000 last year, had left the Government’s targets hopelessly out of date.

The CPS report found that over the past decade, the number of homes built fell short of the number needed by 1.34million, fuelling a growing housing crisis.

Research by the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) suggests at least 515,000 new homes would have been required in England last year to meet the needs of a growing population (File Photo)

The figure is far in excess of the Government target of building 300,000 homes a year and almost treble the 178,000 homes actually completed in England in 2022 (File Photo)

‘These figures highlight the historic rise in net migration and the failure of successive governments in tackling the housing crisis,’ said Mr Williams.

‘Not only are we not building enough homes to meet demand from people already living in the UK, we are not even properly taking into account the needs of new arrivals.

‘The Government needs to get a grip on the immigration system to deliver the control it promised at the last election and do more to encourage housebuilding – greenfield and brownfield, urban and rural, North and South – otherwise a growing portion of the population will find themselves locked out of home ownership by our cavernous housing deficit.’

The Tories promised to meet the 300,000 homes-a-year target by the middle of this decade. Labour said it will also push to deliver 300,000 homes annually if it wins power.

But the research suggests the target, devised in 2016 and based on net migration to England averaging 170,000 a year, has been overtaken by events.

The CPS said calculating the formula using the latest migration figures would raise the target to 515,000 a year.

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