Housing Delivery Test

As our interactive map shows, the number of authorities ‘failing the test’ (i.e. being subject to some form of consequence) has risen over the last three years, from 29% of authorities in 2021 to 35% in 2023. This includes 9% of authorities now facing the application of a 20% buffer to the assessment of housing land supply – when taken alongside the revisions to the standard methodology, this will further increase the number of authorities that will now be subject to the presumption in favour of sustainable development. This is in the context of 20% of authorities being subject to the presumption in the 2023 HDT, an increase of 4 percentage points from 2021, and 1 percentage point from 2022.