UK housebuilders are sitting on land capable of delivering more than one million new homes, according to analysis undertaken by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
As part of its analysis of land banking by UK housebuilders, the CMA discovered 11 of the largest housebuilders are sitting on more than 5,800 sites that could deliver circa 522,000 homes in the short-term and circa 658,000 homes in the long-term.
In most local areas, the CMA’s data shows land is held by several different builders and the authority said it was now trying to establish “whether local competition is being negatively impacted in the small number of areas where large amounts of developable land are controlled by a small number of housebuilders”.
The CMA has published two working papers seeking feedback on its assessment of the use of land banks and how planning rules may be impacting competition and how new homes are delivered. The deadline for submissions is 6 December 2023.
Dan Turnbull, director of markets at the CMA, said: “As we’ve progressed our work, we’ve heard concerns that the way large housebuilders use land banks and complex planning rules may be harming competition and hold up the building of new homes. The market study is looking at all the options available which could increase the numbers of homes being built for the people who need them – this includes probing the issues around land banks and planning rules further.
“We now want to get feedback on these working papers from the key people in the industry – be that council planning departments, builders or landowners – before we publish our findings early next year.”
