More flats and homes have been built in Reading over the last three years than required by Government housebuilding targets, figures show.

However, leaders of the Labour run Borough Council have pointed out the majority of these are one and two bedrooms, and have called for developers to build more homes suitable for families.

The amount of flats and homes built in each area of the country from 2018 to 2021 has been recorded by the Government.

Over that time, the Government set a target of 1,598 homes to be built according to a housing need it has defined.

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A grand total of 2,080 homes were actually built during the 2018 to 2021 period – 482 homes over the target and a 30 per cent ‘overdelivery’.

You can view how many homes were built in Reading according to Government figures in the table below:

Examples of new developments completed include Thames Quarter, Renaissance Reading in Portman Road and the Reading Riverside development in Berkeley Avenue.

According to data from Reading Borough Council 43 per cent (894) of the 2,080 new homes built were one bedroom properties.

This has led council leader Jason Brock (Labour, Southcote) and councillor Tony Page (Labour, Abbey) the lead member for planning, to make a joint plea for developers to build more family homes and affordable homes in Reading.

Cllr Brock said: “Whilst we of course welcome the fact that Reading continues to surpass its housing targets, if you scratch below the surface you very quickly find the new homes being built are not necessarily the homes that Reading most needs.

“There will always be demand for small one-bedroom flats in a major employment hub like Reading, but the biggest demand we have is for family homes.

“Some people will fixate on traditional houses in that description but it also includes larger flats, which are completely suitable for family living and a great many families live in flats across the town. Indeed, not all houses are automatically family homes.

“43 per cent of new homes built over the last three years in Reading are one bedroom, but Reading needs more than 50 per cent of its new homes to be family-sized homes of three or more bedrooms and that demand is not being met by developers.

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“Our own Council house building programme – the largest in a generation – is focused on provision of family homes, but we do not have the ability to fully compensate for the market’s failure to deliver what is needed.

“The Council calls on developers to do the right thing for Reading by building the homes the town needs.”

Meanwhile, cllr Page said he ‘very much hopes to see’ more applications for affordable and family homes, and argued that the amount of one bedroom properties present major challenges for the council in terms of ensuring that the correct infrastructure is in place.