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Homes England to change how it sells land
The government’s housing delivery agency is looking into changing the way it sells public land, Inside Housing understands.
According to a Homes England source, the agency has begun engaging with a range of organisations, including housing associations, to decide how to improve its process.
As well as the social housing sector, it has been speaking with property agents, procurement framework members and small, medium and large developers.
No details are yet available on any specific measures but Inside Housing understands that Homes England intends to roll out the new process during the autumn.
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According to the most recent version of Homes England’s Land Development and Disposal Plan, the agency intends to sell more than 1,250 hectares of land during the next 12 months, comprising 221 sites.
This land includes former New Town land, coalfield sites, assets inherited from the former regional development agencies and sites acquired from other public landowners.
Homes England has a panel of builders to develop on public land comprised of 70 organisations, 14 of which are housing associations.
Social landlords have become increasingly involved in this process in the past few years. The previous version of the panel had only nine housing associations on it in 2013, and the first one in 2010 had only three.
Selling land is part of Homes England’s strategy for the UK to build 300,000 homes a year by 2025.
It already has several ways of selling land, through building leases, selling the freehold ownership of a site, or signing contractual or corporate arrangements.
Last year, a report from the New Economics Foundation criticised the government’s strategy of selling public land, finding that just 20% of new homes built on public land were affordable. The thinktank has been campaigning to end the sale of public land.
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