Homes England has reported a significant increase in housing delivery during 2025/26, achieving its highest levels of both housing starts and completions since 2019/20 despite ongoing economic and development challenges facing the sector.
The announcement highlights a positive step forward for the government’s housing ambitions and reflects the continued efforts of housing providers, local authorities and development partners to increase housing supply in a challenging operating environment.
Positive Signs for the Housing Sector
According to Homes England, the 2025/26 financial year saw a substantial improvement in delivery, with completions reaching a five-year high and housing starts also increasing significantly. The achievement comes against a backdrop of rising construction costs, planning challenges, economic uncertainty and continued pressure on development viability.
The figures suggest that investment and partnership working across the housing sector are beginning to generate tangible results, helping to drive the delivery of much-needed new homes across England.
A Welcome Boost to Housing Supply
The increase in starts and completions is encouraging news for housing associations, local authorities and communities seeking to address ongoing housing shortages. New housing delivery remains a critical component of efforts to meet growing demand, improve affordability and support economic growth.
For housing organisations, strong development performance also provides opportunities to expand housing stock, support regeneration objectives and create sustainable communities that meet both current and future needs.
Challenges Remain
While the latest figures demonstrate progress, the housing sector continues to operate within a complex environment. Development programmes remain affected by inflationary pressures, labour shortages, regulatory requirements and funding challenges that can impact both project viability and delivery timescales.
As a result, maintaining momentum will require continued collaboration between government, regulators, housing providers and developers to ensure that housing targets can be achieved without compromising quality, safety or value for money.
What This Means for Housing Providers
The latest delivery figures provide a welcome indication that investment in housing development is translating into increased output. For registered providers and local authorities, the results reinforce the importance of robust development governance, effective project management and strong assurance arrangements to support successful delivery programmes.
As organisations continue to balance growth ambitions with regulatory compliance and financial resilience, strong oversight of development activity remains essential to ensuring that new homes are delivered efficiently, sustainably and in the best interests of residents.
Source: Social Housing, 27 July 2026.