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Updated Figures: England’s Minimum Housing Need According to the Standard Method

We have collaborated again with the Land, Planning and Development Federation (LPDF) to provide its members and affiliates with this summary of the minimum housing need currently suggested for every local authority in England by the standard method, as revised in December 2024.

Many will now be familiar with how the method, like its predecessor, has been designed to produce figures that evolve over time.

It incorporates an adjustment linked to affordability ratios that are released annually in March, albeit the use of a five-year average does bring greater stability than when this was previously based simply on the latest reported year.

The baseline of the method also changes each year, being based on estimates of an area’s existing dwelling stock that are normally released in May.

The release of this dataset on 21 May 2026 should therefore now fix the figures generated by the standard method until affordability ratios are next updated in March 2027. This makes it an opportune moment to crunch the numbers.

Read more in our new report, produced in collaboration with the Land, Planning and Development Federation (LPDF). Download below:

For further information or expert advice, please reach out to Andrew Lowe. 

22 May 2026