400,000 homes with planning permission remain unbuilt, study shows

The research by construction market analyst Glenigan showed that over the last year, the house building backlog had been reduced by only 6,000 homes to 381,000 homes, leaving thousands of 'shovel-ready' sites where work had not begun.

According to the BBC report, councils said the backlog was partly caused by a cap on the amount local authorities can invest in housing. The LGA called on the Government to remove those restrictions. It also said that Government schemes aimed at helping buyers to access finance risked creating a bubble if there was not an increase in house building to match it.

"The bumper backlog of unbuilt homes and drop in the number of planning applications submitted to councils last year is a worrying sign that the housing market is not yet on the road to long-term recovery," said LGA's environment and housing board chairman Mike Jones according to the report.

"While there has been progress made, this risks being undermined if we do not find a way to ensure developers keep up with demand. These figures conclusively show that it is not the planning system holding back the building of much-needed new homes."

"The Government has an unrivalled opportunity to create jobs, provide tens of thousands of homes and help the economy without having to find a single extra penny. New homes are badly-needed and councils want to get on with building them. The common sense answer is for the Treasury to remove its house-building block and let us get on with it," Jones added.

Housing Minister Mark Prisk subsequently told the BBC Radio 4's Today Programme that the figures, which he said were from December 2011, were out of date and failed to show the progress on new development. "What the current figures show is that of 496,000 sites that have got planning permission, just 60,000 - so about 12%-13% - are actually stalled. So I don't buy the councils' argument," he said.