Housebuilding is finally on the rise in Bradford after years of failure to build enough homes, new figures suggested.

Ministers seized on new figures showing that 170 homes were completed in the city in the latest three-month period – up from 110 in the same period last year.

The statistics also showed that 140 homes were started between July and September, an increase from 120 in that period of 2012.

The picture was the same when neighbouring districts such as Kirklees, Leeds and Calderdale were taken into account, with 800 homes completed (up from 550) and 730 started (up from 670).

The new housing minister is Kris Hopkins, the Keighley MP, who said housebuilding rates under Labour had “crashed to their lowest levels since the 1920s”.

Pointing to 32,230 ‘starts’ in three months nationwide, Mr Hopkins said: “Today’s figures show we’re building at the fastest rate since the crash in 2008. More people are securing a place on the housing ladder and we’re delivering tens of thousands of affordable homes across the whole country.”

But Val Slater, Bradford’s Cabinet member for housing, immediately warned the improvement was just a small step to tackling the city’s housing crisis.

The Labour-run authority has calculated that Bradford needs an extra 42,000 homes by 2030, which involves building more than 2,000 each year.

In contrast, the rate of completions in the last quarter would only deliver an extra 520 houses in Bradford, if maintained for 12 months.

The National Housing Federation has warned of an affordable homes crisis in the city, where the average house price is £142,000 – but average annual earnings are just £18,500.

Coun Slater said: “These latest figures are encouraging, but they cover only a small period so we need more time to see if this rise continues. I welcome the increase if it shows the economy is improving, but the strategy we have drawn up shows we have an awful long way to go. While we are not building those homes we need, we are storing up more problems for the future and I’m also concerned about whether these are affordable homes.”

Across England, the number of affordable homes built was 26 per cent lower in 2012-13 (42,830) than in 2011-12 (58,100), Labour said.

However, those figures were not published for each authority by the department for communities and local government (DCLG) yesterday.

The rate of housebuilding had continued to slide under the Coalition Government, falling far short of the number needed to cope with an expanding population.

Latest figures show there are 15,600 families in Bradford on the housing waiting list, although that total has fallen in recent years.