As much as 25% growth in house building in West Norfolk

The number of new houses being built in West Norfolk is three times the national average according to newly-released data from Whitehall.

From April 2017 to March 2018, about 350 new homes were built, 25 per cent more than over the previous financial year, the figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show.

This compares to an average for England in the period 2016-17, of just 8.5 per cent.

This data includes just new houses built from scratch but does not take into account conversions of houses into several flats or changes of use from an office to a dwelling.

Private developers in West Norfolk built most of the new residential houses - about 91 per cent. The rest were built by housing associations.

Besides the number of homes completed, building started on 290 new homes in West Norfolk from April 2017 to March 2018, up from 220 over the 2016-2017 financial year.

About 270 of these ongoing residential projects are financed by private developers.

Lindsay Judge, senior policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation, a think-tank that works to improve the living standards, said the housing market cannot rely solely on the private sector.

“Just as important as hitting housebuilding targets is delivering the right kind of homes. That means vastly increasing the proportion of genuinely affordable homes, and not relying solely on the private sector to boost housing supply.

“But housing associations and local authorities need more money if they are to deliver more affordable homes, which requires central Government to give them larger grants, extend their borrowing powers or allow them to raise additional funds locally for building.

“If the Government really wants to get to grips with Britain’s housing crisis, it also needs to focus on the fastest growing tenure, private rented accommodation.

“Recent plans to scrap letting fees and extend tenancy terms are welcome.

“But ministers must go further to improve the quality and security in private rented accommodation, not least as a record number of children are now living in privately rented homes.”

From April 2017 to March 2018, around 160,470 new dwellings were completed in England, far behind the Government’s goal of supplying 300,000 new homes every year to meet the demand. About 82 per cent of these new dwellings were built privately.