Development land in Essex: 1,414 brownfield sites
The 14 planning authorities in Essex have published 1,414 sites on their brownfield land registers — land the councils themselves assessed as suitable for housing. Together: about 895 hectares and an estimated 31,346 dwellings of capacity.
Rank these sites with constraints netted off →
Which councils hold the land
Every authority publishes its register separately, so these totals exist nowhere else. Click a council for its full register.
| Authority | Sites | Hectares | Max dwellings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chelmsford | 527 | 177 | 6,073 |
| Basildon | 145 | 115 | 5,358 |
| Epping Forest | 131 | 71 | 930 |
| Harlow | 111 | 90 | 5,763 |
| Brentwood | 81 | 72 | — |
| Castle Point | 73 | 17 | 1,050 |
| Thurrock | 72 | 140 | 4,027 |
| Tendring | 66 | 38 | — |
| Southend-on-Sea | 56 | 50 | 4,998 |
| Braintree | 48 | 25 | 812 |
| Colchester | 33 | 44 | 314 |
| Rochford | 31 | 35 | 1,058 |
| Uttlesford | 31 | 18 | 963 |
| Maldon | 9 | 4 | — |
The twelve Essex districts plus the Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock unitaries.
Largest sites in Essex
| Site | Authority | Hectares | Max dwellings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purfleet Centre | Thurrock | 56.9 | 2850 |
| Craylands Estates And Former Fryerns School Site, Craylands, Basildon, Essex. | Basildon | 35.5 | 110 |
| The Limes Estate Chigwell IG7 5LP | Epping Forest | 22.6 | — |
| Aylets Field; The Briars; Copshall Close; - Known as Priority Estates | Harlow | 17.5 | — |
| Thames Industrial Estate, Princess Margaret Road, East Tilbury. RM18 8RH | Thurrock | 14.4 | — |
| Princess Alexandra Hospital (Including Parndon Hall) | Harlow | 14.0 | 700 |
| Princess Alexandra Hospital LP HS2-1 | Harlow | 13.8 | 550 |
| Victoria Avenue Opportunity Site | Southend-on-Sea | 12.7 | 1100 |
| Outbuildings at the Barn White Elm Road Bicknacre Chelmsford | Chelmsford | 12.0 | — |
| Former St Peters College Fox Crescent Chelmsford | Chelmsford | 11.2 | 100 |
| South of West Thurrock Way / east of Euclid Way, West Thurrock (retail / housing | Thurrock | 10.4 | — |
| Vange Waterworks, High Road, Fobbing | Thurrock | 9.9 | 168 |
Source: the councils’ own brownfield land registers, published via planning.data.gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0. 108 further entries repeat the area of a site already listed (councils often record a whole site's area against each phase), so that land is counted once. 515 of the 1414 sites (36%) state no dwelling capacity, so the capacity figure covers the 899 that do — the real total is higher.
Before you get attached to one
A register entry is not planning permission and not an offer to sell. It records that the council thinks housing could work there. Whether the owner agrees is a separate conversation, and whether a scheme gets approved is a third.
- Net off the constraints first. Green belt, Flood Zone 3 and listed buildings kill more register sites than anything else.
- The dwelling figure is the council’s opinion. 31,346 across Essex is a planning-policy estimate, not a set of designs.
- Price it off recorded sales. HM Land Registry Price Paid tells you what actually sold; work the residual land value from there.
- England has no zoning. The Local Plan and the Use Classes Order decide what is achievable, application by application.
How to read a register entry properly → · Five ways to find UK development land →
GoSiteHunt is an advertising and analysis platform, not a real estate agent or planning consultancy. Everything here is indicative screening from public data — not a valuation, not planning advice, and never a substitute for the councils’ own records or your own professional advisers.