The figure is about 60% of the pre-recession level and a blow to housing minister Grant Shapps who has unveiled several measures to encourage house building.

According to official numbers for the second quarter housing starts fell 9% to 23,400 against the previous period at the start of the year. Housing completions were also down 4% at 29,020.

The  April-June figures show that the recovery in private housing starts has faltered again, down 5% after earlier gains when there was greater confidence among house builders and an element of restocking.

Furthermore uncertainty about future funding has impacted heavily on social housing output, with housing association starts slumping by a quarter to 4,400 units.

The 12-month rolling total for annual starts slipped 2% to 98,300, while completions also dropped 4% on the previous year to 107,220.

The recent sequence of quarterly figures suggest the industry is now stuck on a plateau, producing around 25,000 homes each quarter.

Across the regions, starts were up by 11% in London in the 12 months to June 2011 compared with the year before.

The East Midlands saw a small increase of 3% and the North West of 2%. In all other regions starts declined over this period. The West Midlands saw the largest fall at -14%.