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The number of homes started on sites owned by the government鈥檚 regeneration agency dropped by almost three-quarters last year, new figures have revealed.

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), formed in December from a merger of the Housing Corporation and English Partnerships (EP), said housing starts commissioned on former EP land dropped 72% to 3,144 in 2008/09, compared with 11,045 in 2007/08. The HCA鈥檚 target was 9,175-10,450.

Private sector investment in former EP schemes was also below target at 拢1.03bn, rather than the target of 拢1.09bn-1.19bn.

Meanwhile, the National Affordable Housing Programme鈥檚 拢2.6bn of grant funding for housing associations allowed 10,787 low-cost homes for purchase to start on private sites, compared with a target of 14,000. This was former Housing Corporation funding that was taken on by the HCA.

These falls were despite the body bringing forward 拢650m of funding from future budgets to bolster building figures.

Conversely, the starts and completions of homes for rent beat their targets by several hundreds, as purchasing a home became more unaffordable. The amount of commercial floorspace built and brownfield land reclaimed was also above target.

Despite a troubled year for the housing market, more homes for rent and low-cost ownership were completed in 2008/09 than the previous year.

Overall, the HCA missed seven out of its 10 targets.

Trevor Beattie, the HCA鈥檚 corporate director for strategy, policy, performance and research, said: 鈥淲e have quite a lot of measures to unlock regeneration projects across the country, but we can鈥檛 pretend we have not been affected by the economic climate.鈥�