Andy Burnham's plan to build 300,000 council homes faces a major roadblock: the lack of publicly owned land in areas with desperate housing needs. Research by specialist lender Together reveals that England has enough brownfield sites for between 187,000 and 207,000 new homes – but it's concentrated in just a handful of authorities.
According to data from property platform Searchland, Birmingham alone holds over 11,500 potential homes on its public land. However, two-thirds of the 20 areas struggling most with housing shortfalls have almost no suitable public land for development. Even among those that do, like Bristol and Bradford, there's still a significant shortfall.
Together's Chief Commercial Officer, Ryan Etchells, warned that relying on public land is only 'a partial solution'. He highlighted the problem of areas with high housing demand having little available public land, making large-scale development challenging. The report also notes that acquiring land at market value would be expensive and many sites would still require assessment for suitability.
For smaller builders trying to develop on smaller brownfield sites, access to finance remains a major hurdle. Meanwhile, recent data shows landlord yields rising above 7%, underscoring the pressures in the housing market.
The findings raise serious questions about achieving large-scale council housing targets without comprehensive land acquisition strategies or innovative development models. The mismatch between where public land is available and where it's needed suggests additional policy mechanisms are required to bridge this gap and meet delivery objectives.