The Competition and Market Authority (CMA) which opened its investigation into eight housebuilders in February last year, said it needed more time to gather additional evidence.

At the time of the initial announcement, the CMA said the housebuilding sector needed significant intervention.

Sarah Cardell, chief executive of CMA said: “The housebuilding market is not delivering well for consumers and has failed to do so over successive decades.”

Currently, the CMA does not have sufficient evidence to issue a statement of objections to any of the housebuilders.

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Planning approvals continued to drop in the third quarter of last year — that’s according to the latest Housing Pipeline Report from Home Builders Federation.

2,260 sites were approved between July and September, a 10% drop from the previous quarter and lowest figure recorded since 2006.

For the year until September, just over 10,000 sites have been approved, which is also a record low.

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And finally, with last week’s cold weather closing building sites, a roofing firm in Bradford used its fleet of vehicles to help the local community. 

The Purple Roofing Company gave lifts to key NHS workers in its 4x4 and as the cold snap continued it drove the elderly and vulnerable to doctors' appointments and did shuttle runs for prescriptions and groceries.

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