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Less than a tenth of the UK’s land is developed

The UK has plenty of space to build on if more land were allocated for development, as just 8.7% of available land is currently utilised, development site firm Searchland has found.

Nearly 11.9 million hectares of land are non-developed, compared to 1.1 million developed.

This highlights the massive scale of the land not permitted for development, commonly classified as a green belt, incorporating agricultural land, forest, open land and water, outdoor recreation and residential gardens.

Mitchell Fasanya, co-founder and chief executive of Searchland, said: “Given the enormity of the current housing crisis, it may come as a surprise to many that such a small proportion of the nation is classified as ‘developed land’ and an even more, minute percentage of this falls under the category of residential development.

“Of course, when you break the nation down at a more granular level, the challenge presenting the nation’s developers becomes more than apparent.

“In many areas, developed land accounts for a far higher level of land use, meaning that any opportunities to provide residential housing are few and far between. For those outside these significant towns and cities, the other issues faced include classifying undeveloped land as a green belt.

“While the prospect of building on the green belt is such a contentious issue, if even a tiny proportion of this land was used to build more homes, the nation’s available housing stock could be boosted enormously.

“Of course, it depends where such land would be allocated, as there’s no need for the rest of England to be developed like Greater London, which sits alone in terms of the proportion of the land it utilises.

“However, as the population continues to grow, it’s time we had some difficult conversations around reallocating more land for development.”

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