Builders have land for 800,000 homes
Developers deny they are throttling housing supply after stock of property rises by a quarter in five years
HOUSEBUILDERS are sitting on enough land to build more than 800,000 homes, analysis by The Daily Telegraph has found, raising new questions about efforts to increase the supply of new properties and reverse the decline in home ownership.
The total number of plots in the top nine housebuilders’ land banks has risen by 25pc in the past five years to around 838,000. That is despite a series of Government reviews and policies meant to increase the rate of building.
Campaigners claim it is in the companies’ interest to hold on to land for as long as possible and cash in after it rises in value, but housebuilders insist they are held back by the planning system. They dismiss accusations of throttling the supply of new houses.
The biggest holders of unused land for housing include Taylor Wimpey, which controls 203,000 plots, Persimmon, which has 199,000, and Barratt on 160,000.
The Government has said the country needs 300,000 new homes each year to keep up with soaring demand. But while the figure has almost doubled in the past five years, it was still just 222,000 in 2018.
Greg Beales of housing campaign group Shelter said the “extortionate cost of land” has “left us with a situation where only the largest developers with the deepest pockets can afford to buy and control more and more development land”.
He added: “Big developers will only build homes they can sell at a premium price. So if it’s more profitable to sit on a plot there’s no incentive to deliver at the pace required to meet the Government’s 300,000 homes a year target.”
The numbers include both shortterm holdings, which are in the process of being developed into new homes, and so-called “strategic” land banks that are, in most cases, several years away from being built on.
‘There’s no incentive to deliver at the pace required to meet Government’s target of 300,000 homes a year’
Accusations of land banking have dogged housebuilders for years. But a number of independent reviews, including a Government-backed report by Sir Oliver Letwin last year, have dismissed the claims. Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon and Barratt declined to comment. However, a spokesman for the Home Builders Federation said: “Most strategic land has no planning status at all so builders cannot build and in some cases it will take many years for them to be allocated in local plans and ultimately granted planning permission for development.
“With the housing supply up by 80pc in five years, builders are having to acquire land and try to get more sites through the planning system to maintain increases.”
In February, Amyas Morse, head of the Government’s spending watchdog, panned the “flawed” planning system, highlighting cuts to council planning departments and an increase in the time taken for appeals to be heard.
Several of the largest housebuilders have reported record profits in recent months as the industry continues to soar after bouncing back from a painful rout following the financial crisis.
But the industry has suffered a series of reputational blows including rows over booming executive pay and complaints of poor build quality at some companies.
Profits have been boosted by growing demand from first-time buyers, an increasingly relaxed mortgage market and a number of Government initiatives including Help to Buy.