The number of houses completed in Dacorum falls

This bucks the trend for England, where home completions were at their highest level for a decade during the nine months to September 2018.

In Dacorum, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government data shows that 280 houses were completed during the period, down from 290 the previous year.

The data only includes new houses and doesn't take into account conversions of houses into flats or changes of use from office to dwelling.

In Dacorum, private developers funded 86% of all new homes. Housing associations paid for the rest.

Polly Neate, chief executive of housing charity Shelter, said the Government needed to increase 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 properties, building started on a further 230 homes between January and September last year, down from 320 during the same period in 2017.

Nationally, new homes completions are on the rise, with 116,670 built and 130,010 started in the period.

Stewart Baseley, executive chairman of the Home Builders Federation, put the nationwide rising number of home completions down to the Government improving conditions for house builders.

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."

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.