DATA: ONS reported CPI rose 3.0% in year to Feb 2026
The annual rate was unchanged from the previous month. They report “Clothing made the largest upward contribution to the monthly change in both CPIH and CPI annual rates” while “motor fuels made the largest, offsetting, downward contribution”.
DATA: ONS reported UK house prices rose 1.3% in the year to Jan 2026
This was lower than the revised 1.9% rise reported for the previous month. They report “The North West was the English region with the highest house price inflation, at 3.1%” and “Annual house price inflation was lowest in London” where “Prices fell by 1.7% in the 12 months to January 2026”. They also report “This is the sixth consecutive month in which London has seen an annual fall in house prices”.
DATA: ONS published housing affordability ratios for 2025
They report “In 2025, the median average home in England, at £300,000, cost 7.6 times the median annual average earnings of a full-time employee (£39,300)” and “Affordability in England and Wales has continued to improve in 2025, after ratios peaked in 2021”.
DATA: ONS reported UK private rents rose 3.5% in the year to Feb 2026
They report “In England, private rents annual inflation was highest in the North East (7.6%), and lowest in London (1.7%), in the 12 months to February 2026”.
DATA: DWP published Family Resources Survey for 2024/25
The release includes data on housing tenure and expenditure across the UK. For example, they report “For repayment mortgages, London had the highest median weekly mortgage payment, at £311 which was £127 per week higher than the UK median mortgage payment of £184 per week”.
DATA: MHCLG published Council Tax levels for 2026/27
They report “The average Band D council tax set by local authorities in England for 2026-27 will be £2,392, which is an increase of £111 or 4.9% on the 2025-26 figure”.
DATA: Financial Market Expectations For BoE’s Bank Rate
The chart provides a summary for the expected future level of Bank Rate based on daily data. The One Year figure was 4.54% on the 26th Mar compared to 3.99% on the 18th Mar.
DATA: New Build Energy Performance Certificates, England
This chart provides a summary of the number of EPCs on new build properties, a useful leading indicator for net additions. The 52-week rolling total was 210,908 for the week commencing 16th Mar, higher than the 210,333 total for the previous week.
POLICY: Chancellor “reaffirmed the Mortgage Charter with lenders”
She also “secured a commitment from lenders present to proactively contact 1.6 million customers whose fixed-rate deals end between now and the end of the year”.
POLICY: MHCLG announced new town short list
The seven locations, with a clear preference for the urban extensions rather than new settlements of the original twelve, are Tempsford in Bedfordshire, Crews Hill and Chase Park in Enfield, Leeds South Bank, Manchester Victoria North, Thamesmead in Greenwich, Brabazon and the West Innovation Arc in Bristol (technically South Gloucestershire), and Milton Keynes.
POLICY: MHCLG and GLA emergency measures for London housebuilding
The package includes “A new fast-track planning route for sites delivering at least 20 per cent affordable housing”, “Temporary relief from the Community Infrastructure”, and “Removal of targeted Greater London Authority (GLA) guidance that can constrain density”. It doesn’t solve one of the biggest underlying issues which is high interest rates and weak demand at current prices, while viability is already stretched and will be further by current events.
POLICY: MHCLG published Future Homes Standard
It “will introduce a functional requirement to the Building Regulations that new homes, with some exceptions (including high-rise buildings), are built with on-site renewable electricity generation”. They also published an impact assessment and promised “‘Plug-in’ solar panels to be in shops within months”.
POLICY: MHCLG announced funding for building safety professionals
“New £70 million funding has been announced to address shortages in building safety professions and help build 1.5 million homes.”
POLICY: Mayor of London launched renters support package
The Mayor launched a £400,000 Renters’ Rights Enforcement Fund that will “support renters to defend their new rights, with advice and guidance”.
POLICY: Secretary of State pushed back the long-term housing strategy
In a speech at an HBF conference, he stated that “Between now and the summer, we will roll out the Planning and Infrastructure Act, and the National Planning Policy Framework”, then “We will solve viability gaps, clear the BSR backlog, expand our New Homes Accelerator, and call in decisions which are not pro-growth”, and “Then we will publish our Long-Term Housing Strategy”.
REPORT: CIH published UK Housing Review 2026
The report provides a wealth of data and analysis on the UK’s housing market and is now free to download (with registration).
REPORT: Welsh Gov published Welsh Housing Monitor
It “covers housing need and supply, quality and standards, affordability and homelessness, highlighting the progress made and the challenges that remain across Wales”.
I’ve been waiting for this report as it has important analysis on the state of housing supply statistics in Wales – more detail in Chart of the Week below.
REPORT: Scottish Gov published review of LBTT
The evaluation of the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax looks at “arrangements for non‑residential leases”, “considers the impact of the Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) where difficult or exceptional circumstances apply”, and “explores the potential for a new LBTT relief for transactions carried out under Community Rights to Buy arrangements”.
REPORT(PDF): HoL Built Environment Committee on New Towns
The second report into the new towns programme “focuses on the fundamentally human issues of what it takes to create thriving communities: vision, placemaking, design, and creating environments that are accessible, age-friendly and safe”.
REPORT: National Audit Office reported on shared ownership
The report finds “Shared owners are well informed about initial affordability, but the longer-term financial risks when buying their initial share may not be obvious” while “Service charge increases can create affordability pressures over time for shared owners, as they can for any leaseholder” and “There are transaction costs that apply each time shared owners want to buy a bigger portion of their property”. They also find “leasehold issues and shared ownership issues often overlap” and “The redress process for shared ownership is complex, and shared owners may not know all the routes of redress and advice available to them”.
REPORT: Resolution Foundation reported on mortgage lending rules
The report “considers the distributional impact of the post-financial-crisis tightening of Britain’s mortgage lending rules on aspiring homeowners and assesses how policy could respond to help poorer families unable to get on the housing ladder today”.
REPORT: Centre for London reported on hollowing out London
They report “London is not becoming a city without families with children, but it is becoming a place where the realities that families with children face are increasingly unequal”.
REPORT: Fabians reported on increasing housebuilding in Scotland
They report that “Scottish government policy has held back housebuilding, causing the housing emergency, and that the public want the Scottish government to act”.
REPORT: Public First reported on climate change and property insurance
They report that “of the eight million homes at risk of flooding by 2050, around 430,000 mortgaged properties face the highest risk” and “These homes could become uninsurable or be prohibitively expensive to insure, consequently making them hard to mortgage and sell, which risks creating climate ‘mortgage prisoners’”.
REPORT(PDF): Enfield Council published reforms for first-time buyers
The report provides a series of articles highlighting a large number of possible reforms to help first-time buyers but is a bit light on actual analysis.
REPORT(PDF): Co-Operative party reported on community-led housing
The report “makes the case for why community-led housing must be part of the solution to the housing crisis”.
REPORT(PDF): HBF reported on new build customer satisfaction
They report “90% of customers were satisfied with the quality of their home whilst 92% of respondents said they would buy a new build again, 88% from the same builder.”
CORPORATE: Bellway published Interim Results
They report “The private reservation rate per outlet per week, including bulk sales, was 0.47 (2025 – 0.51)” and “The private reservation rate excluding bulk sales was 0.46 (2025 – 0.45)” for the half year to end of January. More recently, “In the six weeks since 1 February, the private reservation rate per outlet per week, including bulk sales, was 0.70 (1 February to 16 March 2025 – 0.76)” and “The private reservation rate excluding bulk sales was 0.66 (2025 – 0.66)”. They also report “At this stage, the situation in the Middle East has not had a material impact on trading”.
CORPORATE: Henry Boot published Final Results
They report “Positive changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) resulted in a focus to materially accelerate planning applications, with c.11,000 plots submitted in 2025 (2024: 4,447 plots), with a similar level to be submitted over the next 12 months”. They also report a “Net private weekly reservation rate at 0.37 in the year (2024: 0.45)” for Stonebridge Homes.
CORPORATE: Crest Nicholson published AGM Trading Update
They report “Following the weak trading conditions in the second half of the 2025 calendar year, the Group has seen a sustained improvement in the sales rate since the middle of January, supported by encouraging levels of customer enquiries. In the 10-week period to 20 March, the open market sales rate (excluding bulk) was 0.64 (FY25 0.61) and guidance for the year remains unchanged.”. They also report “The Group is yet to see any material trading impact from the wider macroeconomic shock of recent weeks”.
Chart of the Week
We’ve known for a long time about the issues with the housebuilding statistics in England but this week’s Welsh Housing Monitor report shows that there are also issues with housing supply data in Wales. In England it is relatively easy to identify the issue given the availability of the better-quality housebuilding completions published in the Net Additions release. However, we don’t have an alternative source of new build completions in Wales so need to look at the net change in dwelling stock.
Historically, there has been a decent correlation between the net change in dwellings as recorded by StatsWales, the VOA council tax based data, and the number of new build Energy Performance Certificates (the last two are proven lead indicators for net additions in England subject to recent VOA I.T. issues). However, the StatsWales net change collapsed during the pandemic and has since tracked below their measure of new build completions. It looks like they’ve become reliant on the building control based completions data, which we know undercounts delivery in England, as their main determinate for the net change in dwelling stock. It appears the StatsWales figures for the net change in dwelling is missing about 35-40% of actual new housing supply. We don’t know if this is simply due to undercounting new build completions or a combination of factors including more conversions and changes of use. What is clear is that the Welsh Government need to urgently improve their housing supply data – it looks like it would be in their interests!
