Work started on fewer new homes in East Hampshire earlier this year, recent figures suggest.

Ahead of last year's general election, Labour had pledged it would "get Britain building again" and deliver 1.5 million new homes over this parliament.

While the number of new build dwelling starts increased significantly in England this year, the Local Government Association called for increased support to enable councils "to build more affordable, good quality homes quickly and at scale".

It comes as local authorities across the country started building fewer new homes.

Figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government suggest around 90 new homes started being built in East Hampshire in the three months to March – down from about 130 over the same period the previous year.

Of those, 70 were started by private enterprises and 20 by housing associations.

These figures are rounded to the nearest 10, and may be subject to revision.

Across England, some 28,180 new homes started to be built in the three months to March.

It was down 9% from the previous quarter, but up 22% on the year before.

National figures are seasonally adjusted, meaning seasonal factors have been removed to see trends.

In its election manifesto, Labour had vowed to support councils and housing associations to expand their housing stock and "make a greater contribution to affordable housing supply".

While the number of new build dwellings started by housing associations increased this year, from around 6,050 in the three months to March 2024 to 6,480 over the same period this year, fewer homes started being built by local authorities, from about 630 last year to 200 this year.

Cllr Adam Hug, LGA housing spokesperson, said: "Local government shares ambitions to boost housebuilding and work hard with communities and developers to deliver new sites.

"Private developers have a key role in solving our chronic housing shortage but they cannot build the homes needed each year on their own.

"Councils need to be empowered to be able to build more affordable, good quality homes quickly and at scale."

Labour had also pledged, if elected, to "prioritise the building of new social rented homes" and "deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation".

This entailed making changes to the Affordable Homes Programme to ensure it delivers more social rent homes from existing funding.

Mairi MacRae, director of campaigns and policy at Shelter, warned "homelessness is at an all-time high", adding "it’s crucial that we build the genuinely affordable social homes that families need".

She added: "For decades, successive governments haven’t built enough social homes but instead prioritised so called "affordable homes", like shared ownership, which are out of reach for people on low incomes.

"As a result, thousands of families have been pushed into homelessness and unsuitable temporary accommodation, living in grotty B&Bs and hostels, often miles from their communities and support networks."

She welcomed the Government's continued commitment to focus the majority the Affordable Homes Programme's funding on building social rent homes, but called for further measures to end the ongoing housing emergency.

"Now they must go further to end it completely: set a clear overall social rent target, back councils to build, get tough on developers and ramp up building to 90,000 social rent homes a year."

The figures also show around 140 new homes were completed in East Hampshire in the three months to March – up from 60 over the same period the year before.

Across England, some 36,180 new homes were completed during that time. It was down 2% from the previous quarter and a 5% decrease on the previous year.

An MHCLG spokesperson said: "The Government inherited an unprecedented housing crisis, but through our Plan for Change we will deliver our stretching target of 1.5 million homes so we can restore the dream of homeownership.

"We are taking decisive action to get Britain building again and delivering the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation backed by £39 billion investment, helping to drive UK housebuilding to its highest level in over 40 years.

"We are also taking urgent action to end homelessness, by providing £1 billion for crucial homelessness services this year so councils can support people faster."