Housing starts and completions

2021/22 to 2022/23

Summary

Nationally, there was a small decrease in housing construction starts for England, down from 144,110 in 2021/22 to 172,350 in 2022/23. In total 79.7% of the national figure was allocated to the private sector in the 2022/23 financial year. In the Lancashire-12 area, 89.6% of the 4,900 starts were in the private sector, whilst in Lancashire-14, the private-sector accounted for 89.7% of the 5,630 starts.

Preston had a substantial 1,290 starts in 2022/2023, following 1,120, 720 and 640 starts in the preceding three years. The high figure is however imputed by DLUHC and should not be considered a reliable estimate. South Ribble, with 640 starts, also imputed, was in second place, Wyre was third with 560 and Chorley fourth with 500. All other districts in the Lancashire-12 area had fewer than 500 dwellings started. Pendle had least with 70.

The latest figure of 174,440 housing completions in England constitutes a small rise from the 2021/22 total of 171,160 and brings the total back to just under the 2019/20 figure of 175,330 completions. There was something of a slump in housebuilding in 2020/21 due to the Covid-19 pandemic effect. The figures for Wyre show an impressive 610 completions in 2022/23 and the figure for Preston was imputed to be 1,210. The total 4,910 completions in the Lancashire-12 area were 15.3% more than in 2021/22.

Unfortunately, in the latest year, all of the figures for Preston were imputed. As the number of starts shown for Preston was so high, being 26.4% of the Lancashire-12 total, some doubt must be cast over the whole analysis for Lancashire.

The Lancashire Insight Housing Dashboard now has a slide devoted to housing starts and completions. This contains graphs of the time-series dating back to 1986/87, and it has a table showing the sum of the starts or completions for any specified discrete time period and for any combination of districts in the Lancashire-14 area, but with the proviso that there are some records missing between 1998 and 2011, which renders the sum of starts or completions over the whole time period somewhat unreliable for some of the districts, and as a consequence the county as a whole.

Page updated February 2024.