2 June 2015
Communities Secretary Greg Clark will this week lead the charge for Whitehall departments to let go of surplus and redundant land – which could allow potential for many more self and custom build homes – and will ask town halls to follow suit.
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Speaking ahead of today’s first meeting of a dedicated ministerial Housing Taskforce, Mr Clark is urging departments to “loosen their grip” on sites that are standing idle – which, in turn, could provide new avenues for people to build their own homes. And he is also calling on England’s 326 councils to follow the Government’s lead and look at the land assets they hold, and use some of those plots, particularly those on brownfield sites, to provide new homes for their communities.
Mr Clark said: “The scale of our ambition is clear – to release enough surplus and redundant public sector land for 150,000 homes over the next 5 years. I want to see departments going further and faster than before, starting right away, to loosen their grip on sites that are standing idle and to turn them over for house building.
“Councils are significant landowners and town halls should be looking at their estate, particularly brownfield sites, and thinking about how they could make better use of their holdings by releasing land for new homes for their communities.”
During today’s taskforce meeting, the Secretary of State will highlight how enough formerly-used, surplus public sector land has already been released for 103,000 homes. But over the next 5 years, the government will work to release enough land for a further 150,000 homes – equivalent to the same number of homes in Wakefield.
The Department for Communities and Local Government and its delivery agency, the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), have already identified around 150 sites, enough for 14,000 new homes, which can be made ready for sale for house building. In the past 5 years, the HCA has specifically made 12 sites available for self/custom build. At present, the 150 sites that have been identified for disposal do not yet have completed strategies, but it is likely that self/custom build will be one of the methods used going forward.
Mr Clark will urge ministers at the taskforce to go further and look again at the catalogue of sites they hold, ensuring every possible plot is being released for housebuilding. But he will also argue that councils, as a significant landowner, should play their part.
