This is how many new homes were built in Calderdale last year

More new homes are being built in Calderdale, new data reveals.

However, industry experts have warned that a mismanaged Brexit could hit developers with labour shortages and higher material prices.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government data shows that 290 houses were completed in 2018, up from 240 the previous year.

The figures only include new homes.

In Calderdale, private developers funded 97 per cent of all new homes. Housing associations paid for the rest.

Polly Neate, chief executive of housing charity Shelter, said the Government needed to strengthen its efforts to meet its target of 300,000 new homes a year.

She said: “The fact housebuilding rates have picked up since the start of the decade is a welcome sign, but the Government still needs to make giant strides.

"To achieve this, it simply cannot rely on private developers alone – building social homes must be top of the agenda."

Alongside completed homes, building started on a further 330 sites in Calderdale between January and December 2018, up from 320 during the same period in 2017.

Nationally, new home completions are on the rise.

Stewart Baseley, executive chairman of the Home Builders Federation, put the increase down to the Government improving conditions for developers.

He said: "Successive governments have helped create a much more positive policy environment, that has allowed the industry to invest with confidence in the people and land needed to build more homes.

"All indicators suggest we will see further increases in output and planning permission for new homes.

"Unlike the second hand market, new home sales have generally remained resilient to the ongoing uncertainty, but clearly demand for new homes is reliant on a level of economic stability."

The National Federation of Builders, warned that a "poorly managed exit from the EU will create labour and work shortages".

Nationally house building has mostly decreased since the 1960s. The early part of this decade saw house building at its lowest peacetime level since the 1920s