Think tank identifies 2.3 million-home density gap in major UK cities

British cities would have millions more homes if they were built at similar densities to their international peers, according to a new study.

Research by the Centre for Cities compared major cities in the UK with counterparts in two other G7 countries, France and Japan, finding a gap of 2.3m homes across the country.

The study also found that the gap was widening, with big British cities adding roughly half the number of homes in their urban cores in the 2010s than big cities in France and Japan.

It identified mid-rise housing, between four and nine storeys, as the key missing components - with this typology being much more common in the other countries.

London’s 42 dwellings per hectare (in the urban core) makes it the UK’s densest large city. But despite this, it falls short of Paris at 52 dwellings per hectare, Lyon at 54, Fukuoka at 51 and Marseille at 52. 

The next densest city in the UK was Liverpool, which at 27 dwelling per hectare was less dense than Lille, Sendai, Kitakyushi, Toulouse and Nantes.

The think tank said moving to a flexible zoning system would be the best way to support densification, but said that within the current planning system it could look at “bold, pro-density versions” of its already planned reforms of planning committees, brownfield passports and site-threshold rules.

It also recommended more effective and widespread use of local development orders, mayoral development orders and design guides, as well as public intervention to unlock large and complex sites.

It urged greater demolition and redevelopment in low-density areas of cities’ urban cores to make more efficient use of existing urban land.