A total of 13 Ministry of Defence sites will be sold to provide land for much needed new home, as well as raising £225m for the armed foreces.
23 September 2016
The Ministry of Defence has announced plans to sell off 13 ex-military sites to provide land for up to 17,000 new homes. The MoD hopes the asset sale will generate £225 million to invest back into the armed forces.
The sales amount to 1,200 hectares of land across sites throughout the UK. This includes two golf courses at RAF Henlow and Southwick Park, which Defence Secretary Michael Fallon questioned the need for during a speech on defence reform, where he confirmed the MoD is aiming to reduce the size of the defence estate by 30% over 25 years.
This is the third tranche of sites to be released by the MOD, meaning that in total it has freed up enough brownfield and surplus public sector land for up to 39,000 new homes. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: “We are getting rid of land that we don’t need to build homes that we do, generating hundreds of millions of pounds in the process. Our commitment to protect and increase the budget for our armed forces means that every penny of that will be reinvested into defence, helping to keep Britain safe.”
The asset sale is great news for prospective self and custom builders as it’s hoped that some of the land will be made available for that type of development. Graven Hill is one such site that is reusing ex-MoD land. It hopes to provide 1,900 new private homebuilding opportunities on the outskirts of Bicester – it’s one of the largest and most ambitious schemes of its type in Europe.
