New research has revealed that there is sufficient brownfield land to create £463bn worth of new homes. 

The Government has said it wants to use more of the land that has previously been built on to help ease the ongoing housing crisis, in particular small sites that are ideal for the kind of unobtrusive development that existing communities often welcome.

This was in part because of disruption to housebuilding caused by Covid-19 in early 2020, but with analysis by the property sales company Unlatch confirming the amount of brownfield land available is actually increasing, calls are growing for more to be done. 

According to its research in 2020, there was capacity for just over one million homes to be built on brownfield sites. However, the latest data shows that this has increased by 9.6 per cent to more than 1.1 million homes. 

In Yorkshire and the Humber it is estimated that £30bn worth of homes could be built if all the eligible brownfield sites were made available.

Lee Martin, head of UK for Unlatch said: “Brownfield sites are the ideal place to build new homes. Unlike greenbelt land, brown sites do nothing to detract from the nation’s natural beauty or open spaces. 

“We have to hope that the Government follows through on its pledge to utilise this land and deliver the affordable homes that so many people need. Not only will it deliver much-needed homes, but it will also bring a huge boost to the housing market, and therefore the economy, by hundreds of billions of pounds.”

V&A Homes has built three of our developments on brownfield sites; Kensington Court, Waterside and presently Thomas Lord Drive.

Author:  Sarah Freeman, V&A Homes