The government’s target to built 75,000 new homes in the Netherlands every year will not be met until 2024, according to new figures from the housing ministry.

This year and in 2020 just 47,000 new homes will be given the green light, as the construction stop due to the nitrogen pollution crisis takes effect, junior housing minister Steintje van Veldhoven has told MPs.

The plans to realise one million new homes in total to ease the shortage of affordable housing will show ‘a hefty dip’, the minister said, in an update on the housing market.

The cabinet is due to publish its plans to cut nitrogen-based pollution and get the construction industry moving again next week.