Increase in planning permission granted for new homes in 2016

Planning permission for more than 16,000 new homes was granted in 2016, an increase of 26% on the previous year.

However it is still far off the peak of the almost 27,000 houses that were given planning permission in 2009, and a distance from the government's target of 25,000 new homes a year.

There was an almost 40% increase in the number of apartments given planning permission last year, to around 3,900.

12,500 houses were granted permission, a large increase from the low of just over 5,000 in 2012.