Most Britain’s believe that the British Isles is running out of land for new developments, but a January 2018 article from SouthWestBusiness.co.uk has suggested that this is untrue.

A recent survey by Ipsos Mori found that the majority of the population of Britain believes that at least half of the country has been concreted over by residential and commercial developments.

However, according to building expert Paul Barton writing for SouthWestBusiness.co.uk, just 0.1% of UK land is densely developed or classed as “continuous urban fabric”. Farming occupies 56% of the land, and 3% is in a natural non-developed state.

Although there is plenty of land left for development, some protestors argue that their objections are based on the danger of Britain running out of undeveloped land. Barton argues that poor perception of land use prejudices people’s opinions when new developments are announced. He claims that the press and TV do not present the true picture when reporting on new land development proposals, and believes that the public needs to be shown the full picture about land use.

Commercial mortgages are available for new building and property development projects, but these are usually conditional on the developer obtaining planning permission. The planning application process can be delayed if there are many objectors to a plan, and this could cause developers to pull out of projects. Although many objections are based on perceived disruption by a commercial business, some are because of the idea that more land should not be concreted over.