Houseladder today reported that house-building projects throughout the UK may be among the programmes continuing to be hampered by government cutbacks.

Brian Berry, director of external affairs at the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), has suggested the construction industry is still feeling the effects of such action undertaken by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.

The industry figure blamed reductions in public expenditure for a number of building schemes being placed on hold.

And this trend was recently highlighted by a Glenigan report, which showed such projects being left unfinished increased by 16 per cent over the three months leading up to August when compared with the same period in 2010.

Mr Berry noted just over 100,000 new homes were built last year, despite the target standing at more than 240,000 properties.

He added: "That reflects the fact that government and local authorities have cut back on social house building and the fact that people can't actually afford to buy a home."