Sales and reservations of new homes have not been affected by the referendum result.

This was a key message at a meeting between trade body the Home Builders Federation and major house builders with communities secretary Greg Clark and housing and planning minister Brandon Lewis.

At the meeting, builders reaffirmed their commitment to increasing the supply of new homes.

Clark said that housing was a top priority for the Government.

Peter Andrew, HBF’s deputy chairman, said: “House builders remain confident in the underlying level of demand for housing and will continue to deliver the homes the country needs.”

The pledge to keep building came as new planning permission figures were revealed.

In the first quarter of this year, consents for 66,102 new homes in England were granted, up 4% on the same period last year.

HBF said permissions have risen steadily every year since 2009, with actual housing supply also increasing markedly over the past two years as more of the permissions have progressed to the point where builders can begin building.

The last 12 months have seen a 66% increase in permissions granted on the nadir of the recession in 2009. Numbers are now only 0.3% below where they were at the highest point in early 2008.

Demand for new homes remains extremely strong.

HBF said it estimates there is a shortfall of well over one million homes in England. It said almost a third of young people (3.35m) are living at home with their parents and 1.24m people are on housing waiting lists.

Over 180,000 new homes were added to the housing stock in 2014/15 – up 22% on the previous year – as house builders increased output in response to the rise in demand for new homes.

However, HBF warned that many of the permissions granted in the first three months of this year are a long way off being activated, due to the complexities of the planning system – for example, having to discharge planning conditions.

HBF said it will continue to urge the Government to streamline the planning process and ensure local authorities have the capacity to deal with the volume of applications now being processed so that builders can get on to more sites more quickly.