The number of new houses built in England fell last year despite soaring demand, official figures revealed today.

According to the Department for Communities and Local Government some 140,700 homes were finished last year, compared with 142,600 in 2015.

The number built is also 20% lower than the 176,460 built in 2007 - the year before the financial crash.

Labour said it proved the Government was "still failing to get a grip on the housing crisis” and mocked Communities Secretary Sajid Javid for “another bad day at the office”.

The number of housing association homes built in 2016 fell drastically to 23,900 in 2016 compared with 30,000 the year before, the figures showed.

But the number of local authority houses rose by 430, with 2,090 built last year compared with 1,660 the year before.

Meanwhile the number of new homes that have started being built rose from 146,090 in 2015 to 153,380 last year.

The Local Government Association says between 220,000 and 250,000 homes must be built every year to stay on top of growing demand.

Shadow Housing Minister John Healey said: “These latest figures show that the Government is still failing to get a grip on the housing crisis, with the number of homes being built actually falling year-on-year.

“It’s another bad day at the office for Sajid Javid.”

He added: “Housebuilding is still falling far short of what the country needs. There were 20% fewer new homes built last year than before the global financial crisis.

“The Conservative record on housing is clear: fewer new affordable homes, home-ownership down, homelessness more than doubled, and now the number of new homes built falling. It’s seven years of failure on all fronts.”

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: "This shows, starkly, how impossible the government's housing target of 225,000 to 275,000 will be achieve based on their current plans.

"It will be like their immigration target - not met, not delivered and will, in time, erode public trust.

"All the Tories seem to care about is massaging the figures for a cheap and dubious headline."