THE COMPETITION and Markets Authority (CMA) has published its final working papers focused on landbanks and planning rules, as part of its inquiry into the housebuilding market.

The CMA has published two papers seeking feedback on its assessment on the use of landbanks and how planning rules may be impacting competition and how new homes are delivered. It wants opinions on a range of options that could potentially resolve the emerging concerns it has identified.

The CMA would like feedback on the papers within three weeks – by 6 December 2023.

Landbanks

The CMA’s analysis has found that, although land equivalent to over a million plots is held in landbanks, in most local areas that land is held by different builders. There are 29 areas of the UK where a high proportion of land is owned by a group of the largest housebuilders.

The organisation found there are 5,800 individual sites held in the land banks of 11 of the largest housebuilders. Land in long-term land banks is equivalent to c.658,000 plots, while the short-term land bank is smaller, at c.522,000 plots.

The CMA is seeking feedback on this analysis, and in particular, 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 is continuing to examine the size of land banks overall, recognising that housebuilders need to hold a pipeline of land as sites pass through the planning system. The conclusions of this analysis will be published in the final report.

Planning

On planning, the CMA has developed options that the UK, Scottish and Welsh governments may consider when reforming their planning systems, including:

Whether a zoning or rules-based approach to development may help improve competition between housebuilders and boost housing delivery.
Making better use of councils’ limited time and resources by requiring them to only consult statutory stakeholders, rather than a wider group, as part of their assessment of planning applications. Late consultee responses on development could also be ignored.
Having an effective housing target which reflects the housing need of specific areas, and improving the ways governments ensure all councils have a proper local plan in place.

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 landbanks 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 landbanks 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.”

More information can be found on the housebuilding market study case page.

The CMA will publishing its final report on the housebuilding market by 27 February 2024.

>> Read more on housebuilder landbanks in the news

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