Council housing starts under Labour at very low levels – and below last Tory government

Data out recently on new council housing starts across England show levels falling below those seen almost every quarter under the last Conservative government between 2010 and 2024.

In Quarter 2 2026 just 260 new council homes started construction. The previous year just saw 300 in Q2 across the entire country.

This year’s 260 new council housing starts isn’t just the worst Q2 total compared to 14 years under the Tories (save for 2020 during covid when it was also 260 in Q2 2020) but fewer than levels seen in almost every quarter under 14 years of Tory rule.

And those 14 years saw delivery rates far below need. To go backwards is mind boggling.

For a Labour government well over two years in power – and one which entered the Commons fully aware of the growing housing crises – it’s an embarrassing level of delivery.

Past Labour record

In fact, you have to go back to New Labour to see levels so bad. New Labour famously built next to no council homes in 13 years of power.

Looking at the data and in 1999, for example, Q2 saw just 40 housing starts across the entire country.

That never improved as the population began ramping up during the 2000s. Q2 in 2002 was just 40 starts across the entire country. By 2005 it was 70 homes.

That was still better than some quarters though, such as Q3 and Q4 in 2004 which saw zero. Zilch. Not a single new council housing start anywhere in the nation.

Some like to claim there was no substantial housing issues back then. Not true. In December 2003, for example, there were 95,060 households living in temporary accommodation.

By 2009 New Labour had barely improved delivery with Q2 seeing just 50 starts across the entire country. Any stimulus measures post-crash were not going towards new public housing in any great numbers.

And if you think I’m being selective by mostly using only Q2 numbers for each year, you can see that pretty much any quarter in any year saw a similar story.

Heading backwards

Now we have another Labour government which if anything is reverting back to New Labour levels of paltry council housing starts.

Sure, they’ve announced their fabled £39 billion Social and Affordable Housing Programme total. But that £39 bn is spread over ten years with totals across this Parliament seeing no real increase compared to the last Tory government in real terms. Factor in inflation and even if any increase in starts in late 2020s it’ll be minor.

Meanwhile homeless families and children are rising to record highs, ensuring costs to local authorities grow ever bigger as they have little to no council housing available despite a legal obligation to meet and councils are cutting services across the board to try to balance the books.

The only ones benefitting are private providers of temporary housing. Housing like many services is now a way to funnel private cash to private interests with taxpayers paying the price.

Costs to councils keep rising and housing benefit bills spike upwards to meet higher levels of private rent. Unlike building new homes, there’s no long term asset at the end of it.

Job losses

While council starts are in the doldrums the private sector is also badly struggling with new housebuilding. Once upon a time government would support the private sector in a downturn with an eye on the long game, supporting long term growth and support of private industry but not now, so jobs and companies are going under as public housing starts remain pitiful alongside private sector issues.

So who will build the private sector housing Labour are utterly reliant upon with construction jobs lost and business disappearing if they aren’t supporting public building, even as a stop-gap?

In effect decades of housing failure are coming home to roost – and this government are overseeing little improvement. In fact, a regression under the latest data.

Is that what they waited 14 years in opposition to achieve?