Britain to face housing shortage of one million homes by 2015, says Barratt

Published 13th Jan 2012

Barratt Developments yesterday said Britain faces a housing shortage of one million homes by 2015 as construction fails to keep pace with the growing population.

Chief executive Mark Clare said: ‘There is a large amount of pent-up demand. We are building, as an industry, 120,000 homes a year, but the requirement is for well over 200,000.

‘So there is a supply and demand gap opening up quite quickly. We are well short of the number of homes required.’

The imbalance has propped up prices and helped the sector get back on its feet after the market crashed in the financial crisis and recession. But Clare said that even before the downturn, the industry was not building enough properties.

That would soon leave the market short of one million homes, he added. Even if the economy recovers strongly, ‘we won’t get back to 200,000 until the end of the decade’, Clare said.

Source: ' ThisIsMoney '

View All Latest News