{"id":48211,"date":"2026-10-02T14:26:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T13:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=48211"},"modified":"2026-10-02T14:26:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T13:26:06","slug":"cpre-enough-brownfield-land-for-1-54-million-new-homes-our-new-research-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=48211","title":{"rendered":"CPRE: Enough brownfield land for 1.54 million new homes, our new research shows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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image: Brownfield near Leeds, PastekLeodensian, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New research from the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) shows that there is now enough brownfield land in England for more than 1.54 million new homes, enough to exceed the government\u2019s entire 1.5 million target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

CPRE writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings come days after Housing Secretary Angela Rayner admitted there is only a \u2018slim chance\u2019 of the government meeting its 1.5 million homes pledge. The government should treat this as a chance to rethink how the target is distributed across the country. Big housebuilders successfully lobbied the government for a formula for calculating housing numbers that would maximise their profits, piling pressure on to rural areas without the people or infrastructure to justify new development. The result is a slew of car-dependent \u2018executive\u2019 homes in the countryside that will do nothing to address the UK\u2019s crisis of housing affordability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ministers should instead prioritise the plentiful supply of previously developed land, much of it close to where people already live, work and go to school. Homes on these sites could be delivered without the delays, infrastructure costs and environmental damage of building on unspoilt countryside. Much of the brownfield potential identified by CPRE is concentrated in exactly the areas, including London and the South East, where demand for new homes is greatest. This undermines the argument, often made by developers, that the Green Belt and other countryside must be sacrificed to meet housing need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Available brownfield sites in growth<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CPRE\u2019s latest State of Brownfield research has been compiled from local authority brownfield registers across England, which also reveal that 859,722 potential new homes on previously developed land have been granted planning permission but have not yet been built. The number of brownfield sites identified as available for development has grown every year since 2018, when CPRE first carried out its audit. This shows how, even with an explicit brownfield-first policy, there are still far too few homes being built on previously developed sites. This is unsurprising given changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, including the introduction of the \u2018grey belt\u2019 policy and a presumption in favour of development close to train stations, that make it easier for developers to build on greenfield land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, Angela Rayner told the BBC\u2019s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the government was unlikely to hit its target of 1.5 million new homes by the next election, citing \u2018headwinds\u2019 including the war in Iran and rising construction costs. Government figures show only around 203,000 homes were delivered in the year to June 2026, far short of the 300,000 required. Further CPRE research on the economic benefits of brownfield development, produced by Pragmatix Advisory and due to be published ahead of the Budget next month, will demonstrate that the majority of brownfield sites are viable and can deliver decent profits to developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genuine \u2018brownfield-first\u2019 policy needs enforcing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CPRE is calling on the government to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n