Owners delaying planned extensions to houses

Owners are putting off planned improvements to their houses with a surge in those seeking extensions to almost expired planning permissions.

New figures show a 16% rise in the numbers of “extension of duration” in just 12 months — up from 702 in the first quarter of 2011 to 815 so far in 2012.

The trend has been identified in the latest National Housing Construction Index, which is complied by Link2Plans and due to be released today.