Delivering 1.5 million homes: understanding the development pipeline

The Savills Blog

Delivering 1.5 million homes: understanding the development pipeline

With a promise to deliver 1.5 million new homes by 2030, the government needs to increase the volume of homes being built and reduce the time it takes for sites to progress through the planning process. 

Understanding the current pipeline is essential for shaping effective interventions to help achieve the target of 300,000 homes annually.

Addressing the deficit

There are almost 2.9 million homes spread over just under 13,400 sites in the immediate planning pipeline in England. The largest number of sites are at the later stages of the pipeline, and approximately 6,500 sites have either a full application submitted or full permission granted. The total number of homes held at these planning stages is equivalent to 3.5 years of new home delivery in England.

There are higher volumes of homes coming through at the earlier stages of the planning pipeline. However, with an average site size of 216 homes, sites in the earlier stages of the pipeline are typically three times larger than the sites in the later stages. This means that the 1.26 million homes with either an outline application submitted or outline planning granted in England are split across just over 3,000 sites. 


The share of sites

Large housebuilders are active across the entire planning pipeline, but they mostly operate across sites that are well progressed through planning, being involved in nearly half of all homes on sites currently under construction. 

Within the large housebuilders, the top three companies with involvement in the most homes are Taylor Wimpey, Barratt and Persimmon. At the mid-point of this year, these three PLC housebuilders were involved in approximately 329,500 homes. With an average annual new home delivery of approximately 43,700 homes over the past three years, the homes with full planning consent across these organisations equates to two years of delivery.

Housing Associations (HAs) similarly have most of their activity concentrated in shorter-term opportunities, with 73,000 homes under construction as of H1 2024, equating to 9% of the total homes at that stage.

Companies in our ‘Other Private’ category, including individuals and private companies not necessarily involved in the construction sector, hold second place in being involved in the highest number of homes in the pipeline in England, with approximately 319,200 homes. These organisations are most active in the early stages of the planning pipeline, with 50% of their homes at the outline application or outline permission stages.

Similarly, the public sector, which holds nearly 316,900 homes in the immediate pipeline, also has 50% of its homes in the early stages of the planning pipeline. Within the public sector, Homes England is involved in the largest volume of homes with approximately 60,200 homes in the immediate pipeline. Nine out of ten homes with Homes England involvement are in the early stages of the planning pipeline. Support from local planning authorities on these smaller sites at the earlier stages through to construction would significantly support the delivery of 1.5 million homes by 2030.


The need for increased planning consents

The annual number of consents in England has been in decline since its peak in 2019 with 2023 consents 30% lower than 2019. In 2023, the total number of homes that gained consent was c.214,000.

The reduction in the number of consents since peak could be partly attributed to sites taking longer to progress through the pipeline compared to previous years, in part driven by the increasing average size and complexity of development sites. 

Sites with up to 250 units are more likely to involve just one landowner and in general require less infrastructure. Increased volumes of smaller sites can also provide an opportunity for a range of developer types to build out sites. As a result, sites of up to 250 units progress through the planning pipeline at a faster rate compared to larger sites (see our Land Matters Report). A focus on delivering an increased number of smaller sites is vital to be able to achieve the 1.5 million homes by 2030 target.

 

Further information

Contact Phoebe Connellan and Hamish Simmie

 

Recommended articles