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Public land sell-off branded a ‘massive missed opportunity’ to fix the housing crisis
More than half of public sites sold off as part of government efforts to boost housebuilding have plans that include no socially rented homes, according to new research.
Figures compiled by thinktank the New Economics Foundation (NEF) show that 56% of sites do not include proposals for social housing.
Hanna Wheatley, researcher at NEF, branded it a “massive missed opportunity”.
Since 2011, the government has been overseeing the sell-off of surplus public land in a bid to get 160,000 new homes built by 2020.
The policy has already attracted sharp criticism. In July, the Public Accounts Committee said that the housing crisis had been prolonged by the government’s “failure to develop a strategy for public land disposal”.
It claimed that the government will miss its 2020 target, meaning the housing shortage will get worse.
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The NEF figures also show that just 6% of homes built on public land will be for genuinely affordable social rent.
And less than a quarter (23%) of homes built on public land will fall under any category of “affordable”.
The National Housing Federation has estimated that to tackle the housing crisis, 42% of all new homes built in England should be affordable. However, in 2017 only 23% of new housing stock was deemed any category of affordable.
Ms Wheatley added: “The government doesn’t have a strategy for the release of public land, and is failing on its own terms. And it’s clear that public land could be used for public benefit to alleviate the housing crisis, but selling to the highest bidder is ruling this out from the beginning.
“And with every site sold, the availability of land suitable for housing diminishes, as more land is lost to luxury housing developments.”
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has been contacted for comment.
