Andy Burnham's ambitious plan for the largest council housebuilding programme since the post-war era could become a "postcode lottery" because there is not enough publicly owned land in the areas that need it most, according to new research. A study by specialist lender Together, using data from property platform Searchland, highlights a significant disparity in available public sites across England, raising concerns that communities facing the most severe housing shortages may miss out.
Together's analysis calculated that publicly owned brownfield land in England has the capacity for between 187,000 and 207,000 homes. This figure falls considerably short of the Labour Party's previously stated ambition to deliver 300,000 social and affordable homes, suggesting a substantial gap between available resources and the proposed scale of the programme.
The research further revealed that public land suitable for development is heavily concentrated in a limited number of local authorities. Birmingham, for instance, boasts the largest supply, with 185 sites potentially accommodating around 11,500 homes. However, a stark contrast emerged in other regions: approximately two-thirds of the 20 local authority areas identified as having the biggest housing shortfalls possess little to no significant public land available for development. This imbalance points to a potential scenario where those communities with the most pressing housing needs may not benefit from the initiative.
Only five authorities – Birmingham, Bristol, Bradford, Lewisham, and Kirklees – were found to combine a significant housing deficit with substantial public land holdings. Ryan Etchells, Chief Commercial Officer at Together, commented on the findings: "Building on vacant public land is a sensible idea, but our analysis shows it can only ever be part of the answer. There isn’t enough public land to deliver a programme this size, and that’s before considering that the places with the greatest need tend to have the least land." He added that, as it stands, whether this pledge reaches a particular community is "close to a postcode lottery."
Together's report also indicated that a third or more of the proposed housebuilding programme would likely need to be delivered on land acquired at market value, potentially increasing overall costs. Furthermore, many publicly owned sites, even if available, would still face scrutiny regarding their suitability for development. The lender emphasised the crucial role of small and medium-sized housebuilders in delivering homes on smaller brownfield sites, but cautioned that access to development finance remains a major constraint. Etchells concluded, "If the funding isn’t there, even the most promising sites can struggle to move from allocation to construction."