Research carried out by Savills estimates there could be enough government-owned space to build 2m homes in the UK.
The firm analysed 250,000 ha of land owned by the government and found 13,000 ha suitable for development – enough for 600,000 homes.
It then looked at the potential of land owned by the GLA and found the potential for 100,000 more homes in London.
The agency estimated over 1m houses could also be built on land held by local authorities and the NHS. However, due to a lack of transparency, this figure is a speculative and was deduced by analysing the value of these estates.
Robert Grundy, head of housing at Savills, said: “Big strides have been made to provide data on central government holdings but we urgently need to achieve a similar register of assets held by local authorities and NHS bodies. Only then will we be in a position to accurately assess the full potential both for housing delivery and income generation for the public bodies currently holding the land.”
