Dr Sarah Payne

School of Geography and Planning

Lecturer

s.payne@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 6939

Room F14, Geography and Planning Building

Full contact details

Dr Sarah Payne
School of Geography and Planning
Room F14
Geography and Planning Building
Winter Street
Sheffield
S3 7ND

Profile

Dr Sarah Payne is an academic specialising in market-led housing systems, speculative residential development, and the state–market dynamics that shape housing supply. She has prior professional experience as a Land Buyer and Property Consultant in the real estate development sector. Her research develops socio-regulatory and behavioural analyses of developer decision-making, valuation practices and organisational change, with particular expertise in green infrastructure, sustainable urban drainage systems, and modern methods of construction. Her work has attracted competitive funding from the ESRC, NERC, British Academy and RICS, as well as local and national government.

Dr Payne has extensive experience advising Parliament, central government and public bodies on housing and land policy. In 2025, she provided expert advice to the House of Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee as part of its inquiry into land value capture and has been an invited member of the Housing Market Report Expert Panel since April 2025. She has also advised MHCLG, including through her appointment as a Ministerial Appointee to the Commonhold Council Technical Support Group, alongside work with the Greater London Authority, Homes England, DEFRA and the Letwin Review.

Across research, teaching and policy engagement, her work develops socio-regulatory and institutional analyses of market behaviour within housing systems, informing academic debate and the design and evaluation of housing and land policy.

Research interests

My research examines institutional complexity in market-led housing systems, with a particular focus on developer behaviour and the state-market nexus shaping housing supply. Empirically, my work has explored how housebuilders value green infrastructure and nature-based solutions; how land value capture reforms may influence valuation and development practices; why modern methods of construction have seen limited uptake in UK residential development; how institutional constraints shape developer responses to post-recession market recovery; and how housebuilders in Britain and China are transitioning towards greener development practices under tightening carbon regulation.

Building on this empirical foundation, my current and planned research develops more conceptual work on responsibility, morality and nature-market relations within contemporary market-led housing systems. This includes research addressing questions such as:

What constitutes a ‘responsible developer’ and how should morality be understood as a property of market-led housing systems?

How should nature-market relations in land and property be conceptualised, and in what ways should, or should not, nature be monetised within development processes?

Current and Recent Research Projects

URBAN RETROFIT: Scaling up place-based adaptations to the built environment through planning and development systems, Economic & Social Research Council (2024-2027)
UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (Phase 2), Economic & Social Research Council (2022 – 2026)
Mobilizing Adaptation: Governance of Infrastructure through Co-Production (MAGIC), Natural Environment Research Council (2020-2023)
UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (Phase 1), Economic & Social Research Council (2017-2022)
Land: Value to Capture?, RICS Research Trust (2018)
Green Growth: Increasing Resilience in Cities Through the Delivery of Green Infrastructure-Based Solutions, Natural Environment Research Council (2016-2021)

Publications

Journal articles

Jiang H & Payne S (2022) Examining regime complexity in China's green housing transition: a housing developers’ perspective. Building Research & Information, 50(3), 291-307. View this article in WRRO
Inch A, Dunning R, While A, Hickman H & Payne S (2020) ‘The object is to change the heart and soul’: Financial incentives, planning and opposition to new housebuilding in England. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 38(4), 713-732.
Payne S (2020) Advancing understandings of housing supply constraints: housing market recovery and institutional transitions in British speculative housebuilding. Housing Studies, 35(2), 266-289.
Jiang H & Payne S (2019) Green housing transition in the Chinese housing market : a behavioural analysis of real estate enterprises. Journal of Cleaner Production, 241.
Payne S & Barker A (2018) Carbon regulation and pathways for institutional transition in market-led housing systems: A case study of English housebuilders and zero carbon housing policy. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 1(4), 470-493.
Payne S (2015) Exploring the Impact of the Recession on British Volume Housebuilders: A Behavioural Analysis. Built Environment, 41(2), 271-288.
Payne S (2013) Pioneers, Pragmatists & Sceptics: Speculative Housebuilders and Brownfield Development in the Early 21st Century. Town Planning Review, 84(1), 37-62. View this article in WRRO
Payne S (2012) Can the Volume Housebuilding Model Survive?. Town and Country Planning. View this article in WRRO

Book chapters

Payne S & Barker A (2015) Implementing green infrastructure through residential development in the UK In Sinnett D, Smith N & Burgess S (Ed.), Handbook on Green Infrastructure Planning, Design and Implementation (pp. 375-394). Edward Elgar View this article in WRRO
Adams D & Payne S (2011) 'Business as Usual?' - Exploring the Design Response of UK Speculative Housebuilders to the Brownfield Development Challenge, Urban Design in the Real Estate Development Process (pp. 199-218).
Payne S, Adams D & Watkins C (2008) Corporate social responsibility and the UK housebuilding industry In Murray M & Dainty A (Ed.), Corporate Social Responsibility in the Construction Industry (pp. 235-258). London: Routledge.

Book reviews

Payne S (2013) Spatial planning and governance: understanding UK planning. Planning Perspectives, 28(2), 341-342.
Payne S (2013) Let's Build the Houses-Quick. Housing Studies, 28(7).

Reports

Zhu J, Wang Y, White J, Inch A & Payne S (2025) Urban Retrofit: A Systematic Evidence Review
Payne S & Serin B (2023) The potential role of modern methods of construction in addressing systemic supply issues: an evidence review View this article in WRRO
Payne S, Walker L, Illman S & Sharp L (2023) Sustainable drainage and new housing developments
Dunning R, O'Brien P, Payne S & Buck M (2020) Land value capture : attitudes from the house-building industry on alternative mechanisms View this article in WRRO
Winch R, Clough J, Mant A, Hamilton-Russell E, Barker A, Payne S, Gilchrist A, Tantanasi I, Clay G & Rothwell J (2020) Making the case for green infrastructure : lessons from best practice View this article in WRRO
Barker A, Clay G, Morrison R, Payne S, Gilchrist A, Rothwell J & Tantanasi I (2019) Understanding Green Infrastructure at Different Scales: A signposting guide View this article in WRRO
Payne S, Serin B, James G & Adams D (2019) How does the land supply system affect the business of UK speculative housebuilding? An evidence review View this article in WRRO
Dunning R, Henneberry J, Inch A, Payne S, Watkins C, While A, Young G & Hickman H (2017) Attitudinal research on financial payments to reduce opposition to new homes View this article in WRRO
Payne S (2016) Examining Housebuilder Behaviour in a Recovering Housing Market: recommendations for improving Britain's housing supply View this article in WRRO
Payne S (2015) Towards Zero Carbon Housing Futures? View this article in WRRO
Dunning R, Watkins CA, Inch A, Payne S, While A, Young G, Hickman H, Bramley G, McIntosh S, Watkins D & Valler D (2014) The impact of the New Homes Bonus on attitudes and behaviour View this article in WRRO
Watkins C, Dunning R, Ferrari E, Moore T & Payne S (2014) The Contribution of Local Authority Land to Housing Delivery

Theses

Payne S (2009) The institutional capacity of the UK speculative housebuilding industry – responding to the brownfield development policy agenda.

Research group

PhD Supervision

I welcome PhD proposals from applicants interested in research on market-led housing systems, real estate development and planning, including topics such as developer behaviour and risk, land markets and landowner decision-making, valuation practices, and the role of green infrastructure and nature-based solutions in housing delivery.

I have successfully supervised PhD students to timely completion on topics spanning housing markets, valuation practices and green housing transitions, providing structured academic guidance and support across the doctoral process.

Teaching interests

My teaching and curriculum leadership are informed by my research into market-led housing systems and my prior professional experience in real estate development. I focus on the interface between the planning system and the development process, examining how planning, design, risk and regulation shape development viability and outcomes. Through applied and practice-oriented teaching, I support students to develop a critical understanding of market behaviour, policy intervention and the commercial realities of real estate development.

Across my teaching, the aim is to equip students with strong commercial awareness and the analytical skills required to evaluate and balance the competing interests of stakeholders in real estate and planning practice. This includes encouraging students to question the effectiveness of planning and policy tools, and to reflect on how regulatory, environmental and design requirements are negotiated within market-led development contexts.

Teaching activities

I currently lead and teach on the following modules:

GPL447 Land, Development and Ethics (MSc Real Estate)
GPL461 Real Estate Research Project (MSc Real Estate)
GPL455 Real Estate Planning and Development Project (MSc Real Estate)
GPL435 Planning and the Development Process (MSc Urban and Regional Planning)
GPL219 Planning, Viability and Development (MPlan)