New research on the availability of brownfield sites has revealed the scale of land that could be available for new housing. The ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Governments estimates that there is 36,700 hectares of Brownfield land across England alone – enough for 1.3 million potential new build properties.
This comes shortly after Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, announced within the recent budget an investment of £1.8bn to deliver 160,000 new homes on 15 hectares of currently dormant brownfield sites across the UK. Although this promise only accounts for 12.5% of the available brownfield plots available across the country, the intent to provide support for the new build industry is there.
The South East of England has the largest potential for building new homes on brownfield sites with enough space to build over 200,000 new build properties, followed by the East of England with room for 186,100 new properties.
The government’s decision to utilise the vast amount of brownfield sites available has been warmly welcomed by most within the industry, but the question still remains as to whether further investment in the same sector should be given as there is so much space available for potential new build properties.
