Brownfield Land

For people who live in the East of England

Updated 20 September 2026

Sources

Every number on this site should be traceable to a dated public document. The register extract comes from MHCLG. The 132,338 regional headline comes from CPRE. Housing need comes from the standard method and Live Table 125. Constraint pages cite Natural England, the Environment Agency, Fenland's SFRA and the biodiversity net gain guidance.

Capacity

  • CPRE, State of Brownfield 2025 (2024 register data): East of England 132,338 minimum net dwellings; 75,212 permissioned (57%). England 1,412,148 dwellings on 27,200 sites.
  • Lichfields, Banking on Brownfield (June 2022): national registers equated to 31% of 15-year need.
  • MHCLG brownfield-land dataset on planning.data.gov.uk, Open Government Licence v3.0.
  • Town and Country Planning (Brownfield Land Register) Regulations 2017, and the 2019 data standard.

Need

  • MHCLG Live Table 125, dwelling stock at 31 March 2025.
  • Planning Practice Guidance standard method as revised under the December 2024 NPPF, May 2026 compilation.

Constraints

  • Fenland Level 1 SFRA, June 2022 (~67% of the district in Flood Zone 3).
  • Environment Agency Flood Map for Planning.
  • Natural England nutrient neutrality advice, 16 March 2022.
  • HCA Guidance on dereliction, demolition and remediation costs, 2015.
  • Biodiversity net gain Planning Practice Guidance, February 2024.
  • Environment Act 2021, Part 6.
  • MHCLG national green-belt dataset.

Policy admissions

The government's September 2024 brownfield passport working paper said there are simply not enough sites on brownfield land registers to deliver the volume of homes the country needs each year, let alone enough that are viable and in the right location.

Questions people ask

Which figure should I quote?
Quote CPRE's 132,338 when you want the compiled 2024 regional headline. Quote this site's MHCLG extract when you want the current collector total, and name the extract date. Do not mix the two without saying so.

Where the numbers come from

  1. 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.
  2. Banking on Brownfield — Lichfields, for the Land Promoters and Developers Federation, 1 June 2022. National register capacity equated to 31% of 15-year housing need, with less brownfield where demand is highest.
  3. 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.
  4. Town and Country Planning (Brownfield Land Register) Regulations 2017 — legislation.gov.uk, 16 April 2017
  5. Brownfield land registers data standard — GOV.UK, 31 October 2019
  6. Brownfield Passport: Making the Most of Urban Land — Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 22 September 2024. Government working paper stating there are not enough sites on brownfield land registers to deliver the homes the country needs.
  7. Live Table 125: dwelling stock by local authority district — Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 31 March 2025. Stock at 31 March 2025, used with the standard method.
  8. Planning Practice Guidance: housing and economic needs assessment — Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 12 December 2024. Standard method as revised under the December 2024 NPPF. Figures here use a May 2026 compilation of that method.
  9. Fenland Level 1 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment — Fenland District Council, 1 June 2022. Approximately 67% of the district falls within Flood Zone 3.
  10. Nutrient neutrality advice to competent authorities — Natural England, 16 March 2022. Covers the River Wensum SAC and Broads SAC/Ramsar catchments, affecting all seven Norfolk local planning authorities.
  11. Guidance on dereliction, demolition and remediation costs — Homes and Communities Agency, 1 January 2015
  12. Planning Practice Guidance: biodiversity net gain — Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs / MHCLG, 12 February 2024. 10% biodiversity net gain became mandatory for major development in February 2024.
  13. Open Government Licence v3.0 — The National Archives, 1 January 2014

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