HTB comments on latest ONS construction data

11 September 2026

Neil Leitch, Managing Director of Development Finance, Hampshire Trust Bank:

“These figures are another reminder that housing ambition and housing delivery are two very different things. If we want a genuine reset in housebuilding, we must address the conditions that determine whether developers are prepared to commit capital and start building in the first place.

“Development has become progressively more complicated and more expensive. Developers can spend substantial sums getting a scheme through planning before factoring in Section 106, CIL, biodiversity net gain and the additional costs and requirements around building safety. Meanwhile, local planning authorities are being asked to administer an increasingly complex system while many remain significantly under-resourced.

“It is inevitable that against this backdrop SME developers are becoming more selective, concentrating their capital on sites where there is greater certainty around planning, costs and the route to delivery. These figures are the downstream consequence of decisions made months and sometimes years earlier. Government cannot continually add cost and complexity to the development process and then be surprised when fewer schemes make it onto site.

“The Government’s housing targets are achievable, but expecting the industry to deliver them without fundamental reform is not. Simplify planning, properly resource local authorities, reduce unnecessary cost and complexity and give developers some long-term certainty. Do that and there is no shortage of capable developers ready to build.”