Top housebuilders plan ahead with over 125,000 planning applications

Last Updated:

24th February 2022

The UK’s top housebuilders sent in plans to build more than 125,000 homes last year according to Glenigan’s construction industry research.

Persimmon had the most active planning programme amongst the top 20 housebuilders and has submitted 95 detailed planning applications to build more than 20,000 new homes in 2021.

Major developments proposed by Persimmon range from plans for 243 homes at Kenton Bank Foot in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (Project ID: 21315512) to proposals for 969 homes at Harebell Meadows in Stockton-on-Tees (Project ID: 16116226).

Barratt boost

Barratt proposed the second largest number of new homes last year with plans for 19,600 units. The company’s total has been boosted by the acquisition in January this year of land promotor Gladman for £250 million. In the financial year to March 2021, Gladman secured planning consent on 2,760 plots.

Barratt’s chief operating officer Steven Boyes said: “Gladman’s strong credentials in identifying attractive land and promoting sites through the planning process will be an important addition.”

Glenigan’s construction market intelligence showed that Gladman applied to build 335 new homes in detailed applications last year. All these units have been included in Barratt’s total but the majority of schemes put forward by Gladman were at outline stage.

Glenigan’s research has identified a large number of Gladman’s schemes at outline planning. Examples include plans for 226 homes at Charnwood (Project ID: 18103883) to the 1,550-unit Winngton Works development proposed for Northwich in Cheshire (Project ID: 22007000).

Top 20 Housebuilders

Housebuilder	Total Applications	Total Units	Projects
Persimmon	95	20,290	See all projects
Barratt	118	19,582	See all projects
Taylor Wimpey	93	16,671	See all projects
Bellway	83	12,061	See all projects
Redrow	57	7,951	See all projects
Vistry	37	8,007	See all projects
Bloor	46	6,816	See all projects
Countryside	32	6,531	See all projects
Miller	37	4,424	See all projects
CALA	19	3,250	See all projects
Keepmoat	18	3,028	See all projects
Berkeley DeVeer	18	2,526	See all projects
Gleeson	16	2,341	See all projects
Ballymore	3	2,132	See all projects
Story	11	2,129	See all projects
Hill Partnerships	9	1,866	See all projects
Berkeley	9	1,801	See all projects
London Square	3	1,468	See all projects
Hopkins	9	1,346	See all projects
Galliard	4	1,200	See all projects

Flat out

Most of the top 10 housebuilders are developing plans for new houses rather than apartments, with the exception of Bellway. In 2021, 14% of the new homes proposed by Bellway were apartments according to Glenigan’s construction market research including whole phases of the Alkerden Village development at Swanscombe, Kent (Project ID: 20196738).

Outside the Top 10, Ballymore, Hill Partnerships, London Square and Galliard all included large numbers of flats in their planning programmes last year.

Major apartment schemes in planning and identified by Glenigan range from Plot 14b of Ballymore’s Royal Wharf scheme at Newham in east London (Project ID: 21258644) to London Square’s plans for nearly 1,000 flats on the site of the former Holloway Prison in north London (Project ID: 18307662).

Pipeline grows

Overall, the number of private units included in detailed planning applications leapt by 12% last year and housebuilders and private developers were generally looking to build more houses than apartments.

A total of 178,061 private residential units were proposed and 89% were some form of house. While plans for new houses rose by 19%, the number of apartments in the pipeline slumped by 32%. There was however an 8% rise in the number of retirement units proposed.

Approvals also continue to rise. Glenigan economics director Allan Wilén said: “The potential development pipeline of projects continues to grow. The value of projects securing planning approval has strengthened every year since 2015, bar 2018 when project-approvals fell slightly by 3%. The value of approvals held up in 2020 despite the pandemic, rising by 3%, and have remained firm in 2021.”

The underlying value (less than £100 million) of private residential starts will slow from previously strong levels but Glenigan still forecasts a rise of 6% as planning programmes remain strong.

Glenigan customers can see details of new housebuilding planning applications if part of your subscription.

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