1,200 new homes built in Plymouth last year

There were over 1,200 homes completed in Plymouth last year, the second highest number since 1988/1989.  In the year ending March 2016, a total of 1,244 homes were completed in the city smashing the City Council’s own Plan for Homes target of 1,000 homes a year.

Commenting on the figures, Councillor Patrick Nicholson, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Strategic Housing, Transport, and Planning said, “Plymouth needs new homes for local people and this shows that the plans we have put in place are beginning to make a real difference.  I am also pleased that last year we brought 55 empty properties back into use and we want to do more on that in the coming months”.

As at March 2016, there were also 1,007 homes under construction in the city and new housing starts were a further 1,282 - both up from previous years.

Councillor Nicholson added, “The figures on housing starts and houses under construction are both positive signs for the future; however I remain concerned that we still have 4,924 homes in Plymouth with planning permission that developers have not yet built.  We want to work with developers to unlock these stalled sites, because we don’t want to lose green fields to housing development unnecessarily when there are planning permissions not yet implemented.”