Updated 20 September 2026
Editorial standards
Facts on this site should be dated, sourced and reversible. The thesis is stated in the open. The numbers still have to stand if a reader only checks the cited document. When this text and a primary source disagree, the primary source wins.
Rules
- Answer first. Put the number and the date in the opening paragraph.
- Name the source next to the claim, not in a footer the reader never reaches.
- Keep CPRE's compiled headline and this site's MHCLG extract distinct.
- Mark uncertainty in the page frontmatter when a layer has not been computed.
- Do not invent a county or district housing-need figure that is not in the compiled tables.
- Do not present authority-level constraint flags as site surveys.
- Do not name other campaign sites on the public pages.
Honest counter-evidence
CPRE identifies English authorities whose permissioned brownfield could cover a five-year housebuilding target, and names Peterborough. Permissioned capacity in South Cambridgeshire is also large relative to that district's five-year figure. Those facts stay on the numbers pages. They do not reverse the regional finding: the East's register is a minority of regional need, and a further minority after the discounts.
Questions people ask
- Do you correct figures when registers update?
- Yes. The MHCLG extract carries its own as-at date. CPRE's 132,338 remains the compiled 2024 headline until CPRE publishes a replacement.
Where the numbers come from
- Open Government Licence v3.0 — The National Archives, 1 January 2014
- State of Brownfield 2025 — CPRE, 1 September 2025. Uses 2024 register data. East of England: 132,338 minimum net dwellings, of which 75,212 (57%) had planning permission.
- Brownfield land dataset — Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 20 September 2026. National aggregation of Part 1 registers. Points, not polygons. Coverage may be incomplete. Open Government Licence v3.0.