Development land in Tyne and Wear: 695 brownfield sites
The 5 planning authorities in Tyne and Wear have published 695 sites on their brownfield land registers — land the councils themselves assessed as suitable for housing. Together: about 857 hectares and an estimated 36,682 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newcastle | 188 | 176 | 10,524 |
| Gateshead | 155 | 249 | 10,407 |
| North Tyneside | 150 | 109 | 4,209 |
| Sunderland | 129 | 213 | 8,358 |
| South Tyneside | 73 | 110 | 3,184 |
The five Tyne and Wear districts.
Largest sites in Tyne and Wear
| Site | Authority | Hectares | Max dwellings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newburn Riverside | Newcastle | 36.3 | 1100 |
| Former Groves Site, Woodbine Terrace, Pallion | Sunderland | 31.2 | 700 |
| West Chirton South, Norham Road, North Shields | North Tyneside | 28.9 | 399 |
| Ryhope and Cherry Knowles Hospital | Sunderland | 27.7 | 640 |
| MetroGreen - Dunston W, St Omers Rd, Dunston, Gateshead | Gateshead | 19.8 | 528 |
| MetroGreen - South, Cross Lane, Dunston, Gateshead | Gateshead | 19.2 | 318 |
| Land Bounded By Hadrians Way To The South, Haig Crescent To The North, Shafto St | Newcastle | 17.4 | 1084 |
| Philadelphia Complex | Sunderland | 17.3 | 250 |
| Phases 2-6, Chester Road | Sunderland | 16.7 | 396 |
| MetroGreen - Riverside West Central, Mandela Way, Dunston, Gateshead | Gateshead | 13.9 | 417 |
| BAE Systems | Gateshead | 11.3 | 466 |
| Harvey Combe, Station Road Industrial Estate, Killingworth | North Tyneside | 11.0 | 240 |
Source: the councils’ own brownfield land registers, published via planning.data.gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0. 75 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. 131 of the 695 sites (19%) state no dwelling capacity, so the capacity figure covers the 564 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. 36,682 across Tyne and Wear 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.