House building levels in the UK are on course to increase this year, according to figures from the National House Building Council.

Between June and August 40,101 new homes were registered, an 11% increase on the 36,149 registered in the same three months last year.

The national figures are impacted by the fact that 8,310 of those new homes were built in Greater London, while there were actually fewer homes built in Wales, the South-East, South-West, Yorkshire & The Humber and the West Midlands.

The number of new homes registered in the private sector in the three-month period was 30,210, compared to 27,072 last year, while in the public sector there were 9,891 new homes – up from 9,077 in June to August 2014.

However, the figures showed that registrations for the month of August were down by 6%, with 10,362 new registrations, compared to 11,037 last August.

For the month, the private sector was marginally down by 1% (8,401 in August 2015 and 8,476 in August 2014), with the public sector down 23% (1,961 versus 2,561 last August). This decrease follows six consecutive months of growth when compared to last year for the public sector.

NHBC chief executive Mike Quinton said: “Despite a slight decrease for August, overall registration levels for the rolling quarter show the same steady growth we’ve seen throughout 2015.

“However, we are now seeing registration volumes fall in the public and affordable sector after a good start to the year.

“This may be due to many housing associations holding back on developments in light of welfare reforms and the cap on rental increases.

“We will closely monitor this over the coming months, along with the private sector, as the house building industry strives to build more new, quality homes that the UK needs.”