LESS than a third of Wrexham's annual housebuilding target was met last year, according to figures.

A report released by the BBC Shared Data Unit this month examines whether enough homes are being built in each local authority area across the UK.

The report has shown that in 2016 to 2017 Wrexham saw 204 new builds.

This is just 31 per cent of the area's annual build rate (665) needed to meet the targets set out in the Welsh Government’s housing strategy to 2026.

A Welsh Government Spokesman said: "We know there is a huge demand for housing.

"This is why we are investing a record £1.7 billion in the housing sector to build homes, improving existing housing stock and preventing people from becoming homeless.

"This includes significant investment in social housing, Help to Buy, and funding to support small and medium size companies to build new homes.

“We have also passed legislation which abolished the right to buy social housing to protect the stock, and we are supporting local authorities to start building again.

“Thanks to our close working with the housing sector, we were able to exceed our affordable homes target in the last term of government, and are working closely with them to meet our commitment to build 20,000 affordable homes by 2021.”

Mike Hedges, chairman of the Welsh Assembly all-party group on housing, said: "I think that firstly, it's the big builders who limit what they are putting out.

"They are themselves limiting supply so that they can increase demand. The second problem is making small sites available for small builders and self build.

“The third thing is we don't build council houses anywhere near the numbers that we need. When we were building lots of houses in the 1950 and 60s, the major driver of large scale housing was council housing.”

According to the report, only three areas in Wales - the Vale of Glamorgan, Flintshire and Newport - saw their new builds exceed the annual build rate needed.

The biggest discrepancies between new homes built in 2016-17 and the build rate needed to meet targets were in Cardiff and Carmarthenshire.

Cllr Mark Pritchard, leader of Wrexham Council, told the Leader he felt Welsh Government needs to put more money forward to enable councils to buy land and build homes.

He said: "In Wrexham we have worked tirelessly to achieve so many affordable houses and we have delivered as many as we can.

"I applaud the Welsh Government for wanting to build more homes but we've got no more land.

"We need a pot of money so we can purchase land and build more. If there is no money put aside to purchase more land I don't think the targets are going to be met.

"We will build lots of new houses in Wrexham as long as we're given the finance to do so."