Housebuilding has ground to a halt in some towns and cities with high build costs and a lack of buyers leading to a 'new-build drought', figures show.

More than half of local authorities in England are building fewer homes than they did in 2020-21, with one in three having seen new home completions fall by a third.

The analysis of the latest Government data by the rent-to-buy provider, Keyzy, found that some local areas are undergoing a housebuilding freeze.

Among the worst examples is Lincoln where there's been a 97.5 per cent drop in five years. In 2020-21, 400 homes were completed within the local authority. Over the last two years, only ten have been completed each year.

Crawley in West Sussex has undergone a 93.8 per cent drop, followed by Reigate & Banstead in Surrey which saw completions fall 89.8 per cent, from 490 in 2020-21 to just 50 in the last year.

Jeremy Matallah, co-founder of Keyzy, said: 'New-build droughts are cropping up across the country. These are areas that might have been doing quite well five years ago in terms of solving the housing crisis, but have since seen their pace of home creation collapse.'

'Successive governments seem unwilling or incapable of doing what is necessary to help those frozen out of home ownership by sky-high prices. 

The problem is also acute in many major cities, the data suggests. 

In Sheffield, completions have fallen 82 per cent from 1,070 in 2020-21 to 190 homes in the year ending 2025-26. 

In Liverpool the numbers have fallen 66 per cent to 160 while in Manchester, home to Britain's PM-in-waiting, Andy Burnham, the city posted a 66 per cent drop, to 1,100, in a growing city of 600,000 people. 

Across Greater Manchester as a whole, which includes towns such as Bolton, Salford, Stockport and Wigan, completions have dropped from 8,620 in 2020-21 to 4,920 in 2025-26.

Matallah added: 'The problem is not confined to remote rural villages or sleepy market towns but is prevalent in some of the nation's biggest cities.' 

In Newcastle, completions are down 34.5 per cent compared to five years ago, dropping from 1,130 to 740.

Within London a total of 17,760 homes were built last year, down from 20,380 five years earlier – a fall of 12.9 per cent.

Dragging London's overall progress down were Kensington & Chelsea where new homes are down 80 per cent, as well as Kingston upon Thames and Sutton – both down 77.8 per cent. 

However, these boroughs were building relatively little to begin with. The largest outright falls can be seen in Tower Hamlets, whose 73.9 per cent fall in five years accounts for 2,120 homes a year. 

Southwark is building 1,120 fewer homes a year with new homes down 53.6 per cent, while in Croydon it's 880 fewer homes, down 70.4 per cent.

Areas bucking the housebuilding drought

Among the star performers outside London is Fareham, Hampshire, which has seen a 457 per cent rise to 390 since 2020-21.

Uttlesford in Essex has built 378 per cent more homes at 860 in the last year, and Torridge in Devon where 358 per cent more homes were completed in the last year, hitting 550. 

In London, the borough of Brent has posted a 661 per cent increase to 1,750 – doubling its rate of building in the last year. 

Haringey has seen a 300 per cent increase to 960, while Greenwich has registered a 294 per cent jump to 1,300.

Why are homes not being built? 

Property experts say a combination of falling property prices and higher build costs is what is really stopping more homes being built.

On average, it now costs £76,000 more to build a home than it did in 2020, according to new research from the Home Builders Federation. 

In percentage terms, the average costs involved in building a new home have increased by 50 per cent in the last ten years, according to the Building Cost Information Service data.

One construction industry source told This is Money that the cost to build in London has increased by a whopping 75 per cent during that time. 

They said the cost of delivering a typical two-bed flat of 70 square metres has gone from £245,000 in 2016 to around £430,000 today, representing a 75 per cent increase.

During that time, the average value of a flat in London has risen by only around 6 per cent, according to Land Registry figures.

Roughly half of the extra cost relates to an increase in materials and labour, while the other half is due to regulations, levies and taxes, they said. 

The situation has become so bad that by the end of last year, work had stopped on 5,009 homes at 51 development sites across the capital, according to the property research firm, Molior. 

It says development schemes are being halted either because the building contractor has gone bust due to rising construction costs, or because work is deliberately on hold due to the sales market being so weak.

Will Burnham build more homes? 

Things do not look likely to improve any time soon. According to the property firm Savills, annual planning consents for new homes dropped by 39 per cent in the three years to the end of 2025 to just 180,000. 

During the same time, construction starts were down 31 per cent.

However, yesterday, Andy Burnham vowed to kick off the largest council house-building programme since the post-war period. 

Nathan Emerson, chief executive at Propertymark, the membership body for estate agents, welcomed the news but said the PM in waiting needs to ensure 'the right homes are built in the right places at the right time'. 

He said: 'Alongside social and council housing, continued investment in homes for private ownership and in the private rented sector is also vital to ensure the needs of a diverse housing market are fully met.'