Series details: CRDA/54

The purpose of the Housebuilding return was to collect information about new dwellings from Local Authorities' Building Control Departments. The return measured starts and completions of all construction jobs. The data was organised by tenure of the property (private sector, Registered Social Landlords, Local Authority).

This information was combined with parallel data collected from the National House Building Council (NHBC), and thus used to provide estimates of all new housebuilding activity in the local authority area. Figures for each authority were added to others to give regional and national housebuilding figures. The NHBC provided monthly data to the Department in respect of the dwellings that they inspected for Building Control purposes, and they provided listings by site to every local authority district in England.

This was key information for the Government and the media. Housebuilding starts were considered to be a key indicator of economic conditions generally, and about the construction industry and housing market in particular. The data was provided as part of the brief for the Monetary Policy Committee. Completions showed how the demand was being met and how they added to the nation's stock.

Quarterly national figures for both starts and completions were released by the Government, in statistical publications.

The data was owned and created by various Housing Data and Statistics sections of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), previously by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) and its predecessor bodies. The Housing Data and Statistics section was part of the Housing Monitoring and Statistics Division until 1993 and of the Housing and Urban Monitoring and Analysis Division until 1998 and is now part of the Housing, Private Policy and Analysis Division.

This series contains monthly and quarterly data collected by various housing statistics sections of the ODPM and its predecessor departments relating to housebuilding. The data related to new permanent dwellings only; that is, dwellings which were expected to maintain their stability indefinitely. The data was collected using the monthly P2 and P2M forms for the period January 1980 - March 2003. After April 2003, the P2Q form replaced the P2M form. NHBC's return remained monthly, despite this change.

There was also an annual survey, conducted using the P2A forms. NDAD have not received any data relating to the annual returns.

NDAD holds one dataset in the series, covering the period January 1980 to March 2005. It holds detailed P2 monthly return data for January 1980 - March 1998; reduced P2M monthly return data for April 1998 - March 2003; and P2 quarterly return data for June 2003 - March 2005.

Housebuilding figures related to actual building for the month and were subject to revision for late returns. Regional figures for local authority housing related to building by the authorities in the region, which might include buildings situated outside that region.

The survey was directed at the public and private sector. Within the private sector, the survey included dwellings built for owner-occupiers, or private landlords; and Registered Social Landlords, comprising Housing Associations and Local Housing Companies. The public sector included local authorities, new towns and government departments.

Further details on types of dwelling and stages of construction are with the Dataset catalogue. See Links to dataset catalogues.

This series has been selected by The National Archives for permanent preservation, as it monitors a significant commitment of public expenditure and provides information which was used in the development of future policy on urban regeneration. The series contains a combination of data supplied by Local Authorities and the NHBC. 1

The P2 survey is currently (as at July 2005) conducted on a quarterly basis, so it is likely that further snapshot datasets will accrue to this Series. The P2 annual data has not been transferred to NDAD at this stage. If the Department do locate the annual data and TNA decide it is to be transferred to NDAD, it is likely to be treated as a separate accession.

The Housebuilding Inquiry dataset and related dataset documentation are public records under the Public Records Acts 1958 and 1967. The National Archives has assigned the dataset to series AT 86.

The dataset and related dataset documentation are open to users of NDAD without restriction.

The dataset and related dataset documentation are Crown Copyright. Copies may be made for private study and research purposes only.

The dataset is not subject to registration under the Data Protection Acts.

The language of the materials is English.

NDAD holds some examples of blank forms (P2(Hsg), P2A, P2M and P2Q) used by the Department in compiling the data. See the Dataset Documentation Catalogue, references CRDA/54/DD/1/1-8.

The results - ie totals - of the Housebuilding surveys were made available in Departmental periodicals, published by HMSO or The Stationery Office. See for example Housing and Construction Statistics and Local Housing Statistics.

The Department also made Housebuilding data available online. Live tables on housebuilding, described as proving "the latest, most useful or most popular data, presented by type and other variables, including by geographical area or on a temporal basis", were published on the Department's home page. 2

The Housebuilding Inquiry snapshot was originally held on a large ODPM database system. It is NDAD's understanding that this system contained a wide range of data on housing, possibly including returns from other related surveys (for example, the Renovation Grants and Group Repair Schemes Activity data, catalogued by NDAD as CRDA/29).

In preparing the snapshot for transfer to NDAD, the Department created and ran a filter query to extract only that data that was relevant to this P2 survey. The structure of the dataset as transferred to NDAD reflects this filtering action, comprising one main data table (subsequently spilt into two tables by NDAD), and three smaller filter tables. For further details on this and NDAD's processing actions, see Links to dataset catalogues.

See Links to Dataset catalogues.

Initially some validation was attempted by NDAD using the live tables of Housebuilding data published by the Department on its website (see Publications produced by the originating department). However, not all the totals could be reconciled, suggesting that the live tables were compiled using additional factors and queries not supplied to NDAD in this dataset. Given that the dataset as transferred is a subset of a larger database system (see Logical structure and schema), this is plausible. Since the Department themselves were not able to confirm this, NDAD took the view that comparison with the live tables would not be a reliable validation method.

Dataset catalogues provide more detailed information about individual datasets, and are currently available for the following dataset(s):

1. The National Archives has advised NDAD that it should "preserve all the data, ie from both types of source, because this is how ODPM (and its predecessors) assembled and used the data."

2. See for example http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_housing/documents/page/odpm_house_041461.hcsp consulted on 11th October 2005.