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Homes England fails to sell more than half of sites under public land scheme
More than half of the development sites transferred to Homes England under the government’s flagship land disposal scheme have still not been disposed of.
According to government statistics, Homes England still has not disposed of the sites released to the agency by government departments under the Public Land for Housing Programme.
In total, these sites are estimated to be able to accommodate more than 9,000 homes but have yet to be dispersed of by Homes England.
The figures were revealed in a report reviewing the government’s Public Land for Housing Programme, which ran from 2015 until March 2020.
According to the latest update, which analysed the success of the five-year programme, Homes England only disposed of 34 out of 73 sites – unlocking land for 1,663 homes.
The scheme aimed to release land from the central government estate for housing.
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However, by the end of the programme, just 616 sites, with capacity for more than 61,000 homes, had been released by all departments, from a target of 160,000 homes.
Inside Housing revealed in February 2020 that only 19,873 of roughly 130,000 homes expected to be built on sites sold since 2011 through the scheme are expected to be of affordable tenures.
These figures are based on 1,225 sites that have been sold through the programme, which ran in two phases: the first between 2011 and 2015 and the second between 2015 and 2020.
Since the programme closed in 2020, Homes England said it has continued to prepare and dispose of the land that was transferred to the agency – selling land for around 1,200 homes.
It noted that reserved matters planning consents on some previously sold sites have seen increases of around 100 homes, in comparison to previously reported numbers, although the agency said those numbers can still change between reserved matters and the final planning consent.
A spokesperson for Homes England said: “There are a number of elements involved in releasing surplus land and it can be a lengthy process, not least because a number of the sites that were transferred to us were still in use. In addition, many of the sites transferred to the agency are large and complex, with a range of constraints and challenges.
“For example, City Hospital Birmingham and York Central were some of the largest sites that were transferred to Homes England as part of the programme, both of which the agency is now bringing forward to provide new homes and great places.
“However, Homes England continues to work to dispose the remaining sites as part of their own disposal pipeline, and over the past two years has unlocked land for a further 1,200 homes through the disposal of land transferred to the agency.”
Inside Housing also reported in July how Homes England failed to hit any of its housing delivery targets in 2021-22, which it blamed on labour and material shortages and “challenges in the planning system”.
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