IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v105y2021ics0264837721001575.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The use of public land for house building in England: Understanding the challenges and policy implications

Author

Listed:
  • Dunning, Richard J.
  • Moore, Tom
  • Watkins, Craig

Abstract

Local authority land is viewed as part of the supply solution to inflating national housebuilding targets in England. The shift from local authorities as development control agents to housing enablers has drawn political and public attention. Some commentators emphasise the release of local authority land for private housebuilding as a potentially significant contribution to new supply. Whilst estimates vary about the amount of developable land in local authorities’ portfolios, little research has been undertaken into the practical barriers to more extensive use of publicly owned land for housing development. Local planning authorities are universally, and statutorily, concerned with both the delivery of dwellings to live in and making places suitable and sustainable. In this context the actions of local authority officers both inform and perform aspects of the housing market and cannot therefore be divided from local land markets or the development process. This paper reflects critically upon in-depth interviews with key professionals involved in identifying, planning, selling, buying and developing dwellings on public land. Five potential barriers - ownership constraints; finance and funding; legal and planning; quality; and market obstacles - are identified and explored. We argue that whilst the significance of barriers is variable, policy intervention and/or behaviour change by local authorities will be required if we are to use the stock of public land more extensively for new housing development.

Suggested Citation

  • Dunning, Richard J. & Moore, Tom & Watkins, Craig, 2021. "The use of public land for house building in England: Understanding the challenges and policy implications," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:105:y:2021:i:c:s0264837721001575
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105434
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837721001575
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105434?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Adams & Alan Disberry & Norman Hutchison & Thomas Munjoma, 2001. "Urban redevelopment: contextual influences and landowner behaviour," Journal of Property Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 217-234.
    2. Alex Lord & Philip O’Brien, 2017. "What price planning? Reimagining planning as “market maker”," Planning Theory & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 217-232, April.
    3. Andy Inch & Richard Dunning & Aidan While & Hannah Hickman & Sarah Payne, 2020. "‘The object is to change the heart and soul’: Financial incentives, planning and opposition to new housebuilding in England," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 38(4), pages 713-732, June.
    4. A. D. H. (Tony) Crook & Peter A. Kemp, 2019. "In search of profit: housing association investment in private rental housing," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(4), pages 666-687, April.
    5. Alan W. Evans, 1973. "The Economics of Residential Location," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-01889-5.
    6. repec:brs:ecchap:16 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Stephen Hincks & Brian Webb & Cecilia Wong, 2014. "Fragility and Recovery: Housing, Localities and Uneven Spatial Development in the UK," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(11), pages 1842-1862, November.
    8. repec:rri:bkchap:16 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Grant I. Thrall, 1987. "Land Use and Urban Form," Wholbk, Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University, number 16, July-Sept.
    10. Choi, Chang Gyu & Lee, Sugie & Kim, Heungsoon & Seong, Eun Yeong, 2019. "Critical junctures and path dependence in urban planning and housing policy: A review of greenbelts and New Towns in Korea’s Seoul metropolitan area," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 195-204.
    11. Mark G. Dotzour & Terry V. Grissom & Crocker H. Liu & Thomas Pearson, 1990. "Highest and Best Use: The Evolving Paradigm," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 5(1), pages 17-32.
    12. O’Brien, Philip & Lord, Alex & Dembski, Sebastian, 2020. "How do planners manage risk in alternative land development models? An institutional analysis of land development in the Netherlands," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    13. Colwell, Peter F. & Munneke, Henry J., 1997. "The Structure of Urban Land Prices," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 321-336, May.
    14. Alexander Woestenburg & Erwin van der Krabben & Tejo Spit, 2019. "Legitimacy Dilemmas in Direct Government Intervention: The Case of Public Land Development, an Example from the Netherlands," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-19, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Peng Cheng & Houtian Tang & Yue Dong & Ke Liu & Ping Jiang & Yaolin Liu, 2021. "Knowledge Mapping of Research on Land Use Change and Food Security: A Visual Analysis Using CiteSpace and VOSviewer," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-22, December.
    2. Canelas, Patricia & Noring, Luise, 2022. "Governmentalities of land value capture in urban redevelopment," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jin, Tanhua & Cheng, Long & Liu, Zhicheng & Cao, Jun & Huang, Haosheng & Witlox, Frank, 2022. "Nonlinear public transit accessibility effects on housing prices: Heterogeneity across price segments," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 48-59.
    2. Hoang Huu Phe & Patrick Wakely, 2000. "Status, Quality and the Other Trade-off: Towards a New Theory of Urban Residential Location," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 37(1), pages 7-35, January.
    3. Claude Napoléone & Ghislain Geniaux, 2005. "Rente foncière et anticipations dans le périurbain," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 168(2), pages 77-95.
    4. T. Gries & R. Grundmann & I. Palnau & M. Redlin, 2017. "Innovations, growth and participation in advanced economies - a review of major concepts and findings," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 293-351, April.
    5. Florence Goffette-Nagot, 2009. "Prix fonciers et demande de sol à usage résidentiel en France (1975-2000)," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 60(3), pages 853-862.
    6. John Parr, 2015. "The city and the region as contrasts in spatial organization," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 54(3), pages 797-817, May.
    7. Yin, Xu & Wang, Jing & Li, Yurui & Feng, Zhiming & Wang, Qianyi, 2021. "Are small towns really inefficient? A data envelopment analysis of sampled towns in Jiangsu province, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    8. Gyourko, Joe & Krimmel, Jacob, 2021. "The impact of local residential land use restrictions on land values across and within single family housing markets," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    9. Seong, Eun Yeong & Kim, Hyung Min & Kang, Jingu & Choi, Chang Gyu, 2023. "Developing pedestrian cities: The contribution of land readjustment projects to street vitality in Seoul, South Korea," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    10. C J Webster & F Wu, 1999. "Regulation, Land-Use Mix, and Urban Performance. Part 1: Theory," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 31(8), pages 1433-1442, August.
    11. Broitman, Dani & Ben-Haim, Yakov, 2022. "Forecasting residential sprawl under uncertainty: An info-gap analysis," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    12. Colin Jones, 2017. "Spatial economy and the geography of functional economic areas," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 44(3), pages 486-503, May.
    13. M C Romanos, 1978. "Energy-Price Effects on Metropolitan Spatial Structure and Form," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 10(1), pages 93-104, January.
    14. Allen C. Goodman & Brent C Smith, 2023. "Medical Service Quality and Office Rent Premiums: Reputation Spillovers," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 66(3), pages 680-708, April.
    15. Cheshire, Paul, 2009. "Urban land markets and policy failures," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 30837, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Plantinga, Andrew J. & Lubowski, Ruben N. & Stavins, Robert N., 2002. "The effects of potential land development on agricultural land prices," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 561-581, November.
    17. Cozzolino, Stefano & Moroni, Stefano, 2021. "Multiple agents and self-organisation in complex cities: The crucial role of several property," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    18. Rui Wang, 2009. "The Structure of Chinese Urban Land Prices: Estimates from Benchmark Land Price Data," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 24-38, July.
    19. Colin Jones & Mike Coombes & Neil Dunse & David Watkins & Colin Wymer, 2012. "Tiered Housing Markets and their Relationship to Labour Market Areas," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(12), pages 2633-2650, September.
    20. C.Y. Yiu & S.K. Wong, 2005. "The Effects of Expected Transport Improvements on Housing Prices," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(1), pages 113-125, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:105:y:2021:i:c:s0264837721001575. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.