Everyone agrees we need more to build homes - but will it happen?
Everyone agrees we need more to build homes - but will it happen?
Sun, May 24, 2026 at 6:15 AM UTC
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Everyone agrees we need more to build homes - but will it happen?
Labour made delivering 1.5m new homes for England by 2029 a key pledge in its campaign towards a landslide General Election win in 2024.
But BBC research has found the number of homes being built, overall, across North, South and West Yorkshire fell in the government's first year in power.
Our figures - the most recent available and from the House of Commons Library - found an 11% drop in the number of new houses completed in the year up to April 2025 compared to the previous 12 months.
Of 11 local authorities in the region, five saw a decrease in the number of new builds. Sheffield was down 800 homes, from 1,885 to 1,050, a drop of more than 40%. There was also a 40% reduction in completions in Doncaster - down 492, from 1,234 to 742.
Barnsley saw a reduction of 125 units, from 625 down to 550. Kirklees was down 149, from 989 to 840.
North Yorkshire Council recorded a drop of 373 new builds, down to 2,356 from 2,729, a 14% reduction.
Where there were increases, they were mostly modest, with new builds up by five properties overall in York, from 390 to 395; seven in Calderdale, from 341 to 348; 21 in Rotherham, up to 771 from 750; and three in Bradford, 976 to 979, year-on-year.
Leeds had the biggest increase in Labour's first 12 months, with 335 more new builds, the total number of new homes rising to 3,761 from 3,426, up just under 10%.
The government pointed out that mandatory local housing targets had been introduced and the planning system overhauled to encourage residential development. There is also a project to build 10,000 new homes in the South Bank, near Leeds city centre.
A Local Government Association spokesperson said: "Local government shares the collective national ambition to tackle the housing crisis, which will only be achieved with strong national and local leadership working together."
Developers and major housebuilders want to deliver new properties, many of them marketed at first-time buyers and younger families who want to get onto the housing ladder. Yet in many rural communities, campaigners fight planning applications for new estates, citing pressure on local services and the loss of countryside.
Nick Atkin is chief executive of Yorkshire Housing, which manages about 20,000 homes, and aims to build 500 new ones each year.
He said the 1.5m national target was "really challenging," but, he said, the real measure of whether Labour's housebuilding plans have been successful "shouldn't be a single figure that was made at the election".
"The focus should be on what can be delivered as a result of the government's announcement at the end of last year, that it's investing £39bn for affordable and social homes over the next decade.
"The key test is whether we see a year-on-year increase in the number of affordable homes. I'm confident we will start to see that coming through soon," Atkin said.
'Take time'
Asked about the government's changes to the planning system, Atkin said builders were "starting to see the positive impact".
He welcomed the commitment from York and North Yorkshire's councils, and the region's elected mayor, to "deliver" 60,000 new homes.
Atkin said: "At least 25,000 of those homes will be for affordable rent. We can now see the pipeline of new homes across Yorkshire is increasing at a scale we have not experienced for a considerable time.
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"They do take time to come on line and for people to get the keys and move in.
"We can see the scale is there, the commitment is there, the funding is there. It's just unfortunate, and I understand the frustration, but to build a new home, from the moment you acquire the land to the moment somebody can move in, that period is usually two to three years."
Yet the reality is that many of those 60,000 new homes will be built in areas where existing residents do not want them.
Local protest groups are regularly forming across Yorkshire to object to developments through the council planning system.
'At capacity'
Many say they are not simply NIMBYs - meaning not in my back yard - who want to look out over open fields rather than someone else's house, but that they have genuine concerns about pressure on sewage and drainage networks, GP services, roads and school places.
The system does require developers to make proportionate contributions towards local services, such as funding schools, medical centres and the building of access roads. Amenities such as children's playgrounds and other recreation areas often form part of these applications too.
For example, a scheme for more than 200 homes near Wombwell was approved by Barnsley Council in February despite objections from the community.
However, the builder's Section 106 agreement required them to pay £1m towards education and £170,000 for travel improvements.
One North Yorkshire campaign, in Hunmanby, near Filey, is opposing a Banks Property plan to build more than 100 new homes in a field on the edge of the village.
The group, called Hunmanby Against Further 'Ousing Development, or HAFOD, said the plans are a threat to wildlife, as a pond in the field is home to protected great crested newts.
Group member Phil Sainter said: "There is a wonderful ecosystem in that field. "There are other issues too, the village is at capacity. The infrastructure's not changed for 70 years, we just can't take a development of 125 houses."
A spokesman for Banks said the firm had signed up to Natural England's "longstanding" district-level licensing scheme.
The scheme aims to increase the number of great crested newts by providing large-scale new or better habitats in targeted areas, the spokesman said.
He added: "All our project plans cover every aspect of each proposed development in great detail, including ecology, the environment and biodiversity, and we have a long track record of living up to our responsibilities in every respect of their delivery."
A spokesperson for the ministry of housing, communities and local government said: "All areas, including Yorkshire, must play their part in building the homes this country needs and restore the dream of home ownership."
The Local Government Association spokesperson called for councils to be given greater powers to ensure developers build homes that have already been given planning permission.
"It is essential that council oversight, local knowledge, and community needs are the heart of housebuilding targets, or they risk not being deliverable. When decisions about housing are made locally, they can come with the necessary local infrastructure and affordable homes," the spokesperson said.
Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
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