We’ve not found anything in the official statistics to support it

4 Nov 2022 | Full Fact's weekly news
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FACT CHECK
No evidence for Rishi Sunak’s claim about ‘record’ number of new homes built

“I’m pleased we had a record number of new homes built in the last year” - Rishi Sunak

There’s various official statistics on house building, all measuring slightly different things - but none of them support this claim.

The most recent official figures on the number of homes completed in England show more houses were built at various points in the 1980s and in the year to June 2021.

This is quarterly data and only goes back to the late 1970s. Calendar year data goes back as far as 1946, however. That data shows dozens of years where more houses were built than were built last year.

These figures show the number of new homes built, but don’t take into account how many are lost.

To take into account both new homes built, while removing homes that are repurposed or destroyed, we have to look at ‘net additional dwellings’ data. This wasn’t a record either. 2020/21 saw 216,000 homes added to the stock in England, fewer than in the last four financial years and in 2007/08. This data only goes back to the year 2000.

We asked Number 10 to provide the statistics Mr Sunak was referring to, but we were not sent anything that directly substantiates his claim.

We asked a number of experts whether there was any way Mr Sunak’s claim could be true. None could find any data to support it.

We’ve asked the Prime Minister to correct the record.

All the housebuilding statistics you could ever possibly want or need ([link removed])
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FACT CHECK


** The UK has not suspended aid to Ukraine ([link removed])
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Widely shared social media posts claim that the Prime Minister has halted financial aid to Ukraine due to the UK’s ongoing “severe economic crisis”. But no such announcement has been made.

On the contrary, both Rishi Sunak and the Foreign Office have recently confirmed that support for Ukraine will continue. In September, the then Prime Minister Liz Truss announced the UK had committed £2.3 billion of military aid in 2022, and would “meet or exceed” this in 2023.

On 25 October, the same day he was appointed Prime Minister, Mr Sunak spoke to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and pledged that the UK’s support for his country “would be as strong as ever”.

On Tuesday, the government announced a new £6 million support package to protect Ukraine’s critical national infrastructure and vital public services from cyber attacks.

Ukraine aid ([link removed])
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FACT CHECK


** Penny Mordaunt was given special permission to wear submariners badge ([link removed])
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An image of Conservative MP and Leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt, wearing a badge awarded to submariners has been circulating on social media. It’s being shared because people are claiming that she is “not qualified” to wear it as she has not served as a submariner herself.

The Royal Navy agrees it would be inappropriate for a non-submariner to wear submariner’s insignia on a naval uniform. But Ms Mordaunt was presented with the insignia by the Royal Navy, and was given explicit permission to wear it on civilian clothes during the event at which she’s pictured.

Why she wore it ([link removed])
MORE FACT CHECKS
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* Claims that bogus census takers are robbing houses in the UK are false ([link removed])

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