Fairway or driveway? Why golf courses are in the crosshairs of Britain's housing crisis
This local protest was one of many held on Saturday - with what organisers from the Community Planning Alliance claimed were around 170 organisations taking part nationwide as part of a day of action aimed at highlighting concerns over the loss of green spaces across the UK. For some of the people who use Enderby Golf Course in Leicestershire, its loss would be keenly felt. "It's only a nine hole little course, which is why a lot of people love it here, because it's like half a golf course," explains Chris D'Araujo, who manages the site.
"It is perfect for a new golfer or retired people that don't really want the big long up and down hills, like a proper private course. We do serve a very good purpose for the community. " "It'd be sad to see it go… I think this would be the very, very last site you would pick if you had to," Chris says.
Blaby District Council has said the area of land it has proposed for development, including the golf course, could help it meets it planning obligation of delivering 654 new homes a year up to 2042. The site offers an opportunity to create a "sustainable community" with public green space open to all and "much-needed affordable housing" it said. The site still needs to go through the relevant planning stages, and the need for new homes will be balanced "against public amenity", the council added.
The UK hosts around a quarter of Europe's golf courses at a time when the government is pushing hard to increase housing supply - aiming for 1. 5 million new homes in England over five years, or roughly 300,000 to 370,000 a year. In England alone, golf courses occupy an estimated 270,000 hectares, around 2% of the country's total land area - roughly the same amount used for domestic buildings, by some estimates.
Gavin Anderson, from England Golf, the governing body for amateur golf, says the organisation has seen a significant rise in planning proposals involving partial or full loss of golf provision, particularly over the last two to three years - likely because golf courses often sit on large, well‑located pieces of land at a time when councils are trying to find space for new homes. And Custodian Golf consultancy reports that nearly 20% of clubs are financially at risk, a factor that could influence decisions to release land for housing. It is against this backdrop a debate has sharpened over how this land should be used: are golf courses the right places to build housing, or are they simply a soft target?
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