The rate of private-sector housebuilding getting underway in London is 34% lower than the national average says Lendy, one of Europe’s leading peer to peer secured lending platforms.

Lendy found that developers started just 15.5 homes per 10,000 people in the capital in 2016, compared to the England-wide average of 23.4.

Lendy points out that eight out of the bottom 10 performing areas for per capita housebuilding starts by developers are in London and the South East, despite the housing shortage being the most acute in this region. The London boroughs of Westminster, Camden and Kensington & Chelsea have among the lowest (see table below).

By contrast, the Midlands dominates the top of the table, with five out of the 10 best performing areas for per capita rates of new private sector house-building including Stratford-on-Avon, and parts of Leicestershire and Derbyshire.

Lendy says that lack of competitively priced funding from banks to smaller developers has led to low housing starts in London and the South East – where site purchase costs are highest.

Though the UK urgently needs a rapid increase in home building, it is not happening fast enough – ironically in regions where demand is greatest, says Lendy.

Liam Brooke, Director and co-founder of Lendy, commented: “Funding is the critical missing piece of the jigsaw, with banks still reducing lending to this sector.”

Lendy says that ensuring all land is registered with the Land Registry would be one solution to increase the supply of development land. It explains that at the moment it can be difficult to purchase potentially suitable sites because it can often be hard to identify who owns them. Only around 20% of all land in England & Wales is registered with the land registry.

Lendy points out that eight out of the bottom 10 performing areas for per capita housebuilding starts by developers are in London and the South East, despite the housing shortage being the most acute in this region.

Liam Brooke adds: “Enabling developers to regenerate more pockets of under-exploited land needs to be made easier, to make the most of the available space.

“There are, for example, plenty of brownfield sites in and around the capital which are ripe for redevelopment, but there are also areas on the edges of the ‘Green Belt’, which are not environmentally or agriculturally valuable or attractive that could also be considered.

“While a highly charged political issue, there needs to be a sensible, rational debate which takes into account that not all Green Belt land is actually beautiful rolling countryside that warrants blanket protection”.

*Dwellings started by ‘private enterprise’ in England. Excludes housebuilding starts by local authorities and housing associations.