Land banking by housebuilders: the baseless conspiracy theory that refuses to go away

By Paul Smith 2025-03-14T07:00:00

Despite numerous reviews finding no evidence of housebuilders deliberately withholding land from the market, we are again having to talk about ‘unbuilt’ homes, writes Paul Smith

The moon landing was faked, Bill Gates used Covid vaccines to inject us all with microchips and home builders don’t build homes they have permission for. Some conspiracy theories just won’t go away.

The latest incarnation of the “land banking” conspiracy - the deliberate withholding of consented homes from the market - comes courtesy of the The Institute For Public Policy Research (IPPR) and the Local Government Association, claims that 1.4 million homes have been granted planning permission but not built since 2007. Planning, you see, just isn’t a problem.

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