Conservative Manifesto Summary: Housing

·         Halve rough sleeping over the course of the next parliament and eliminate it by 2027

·         Meet 2015 commitment to deliver a million homes by the end of 2020 and half a million more by the end of 2022

·         Build better houses to match the quality of previous generations

·         Support for high-quality, high-density housing like mansion blocks, mews houses and terraced streets

·         160,000 houses built on government land

·         Maintain the existing strong protections on designated land like the Green Belt, National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty

·         Continue £2.5bn flood defence programme to protect 300,000 existing homes by 2021.

Read more on the BBC website.

HCA To Channel All Government Land Sales

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has been given a central role in plans to sell enough government land to build more than 160,000 new homes, after it was announced a separate new body would be created to take on ownership of government land and property. The Spending Review said the new body would be launched in March 2017. The HCA has now confirmed that all land marked for sale would be transferred to the agency from the new body. The HCA previously acted as the disposal agency for the CLG and had an administration role for other departments. The initiative is being delivered by the existing Government Property Unit, with the Cabinet Office as the lead department. Read more on Inside Housing.

Osborne Orders Huge Sell-Off Of Government Land to Build 150,000 Homes

Billions of pounds worth of land and buildings will be sold to enable George Osborne to cut public spending by £20billion a year. The Chancellor will tell ministers to identify NHS, defence and other government assets to be disposed of, to help provide a further 150,000 new homes to ease the housing crisis. The Ministry of Defence alone owns 227,300 hectares – 1 per cent of all land in the UK, including 15 golf courses. Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Osborne’s Great British Sell-Off

Members of the public and businesses will be offered the chance to buy government land and property on the open market, a landmark change designed to raise money for Treasury coffers and free up space to build new homes. The scheme, announced by chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, will see a Rightmove-style website launched, enabling the public to locate every inch of the £330bn worth of government-owned land and buildings – and identify which sites could be sold off, even if they are currently in use. Anyone can then submit an application to the government, with their proposal considered by policy experts before the land is sold on at a fair price if the application is successful. Read more on the City AM website.

UK's First Self-Build Community to Fast-Track New Homes

Plans for the nation's first ever dedicated large-scale self building community have been given the green light by Grant Shapps.  Mr Shapps announced a wide package for aspiring self builders, offering exclusive access to £30 million funding and Government-owned land to help them turn their housebuilding dreams into a reality.  The move is part of wider efforts to help double the size of the self-build sector. The Minister named seven sites across the country being set aside specifically for groups of people looking to work together to build their own homes. These sites, together with many more opportunities being identified by local authorities, will create hundreds of new self build opportunities across the country.  Read more on the CLG website.

Public Land for 83,500 Homes Identified

The government has now identified plots for 83,500 homes on government–owned land. The government has committed itself to getting departments and quangos to identify publicly-owned land that can be used for housing, in order to kick-start development, and said it had identified plots for 50,000 homes at the time of the Tory party conference in October. “Coalition insiders” now say the figure has now risen to 83,500. The figure will form part of the expected 29 November announcement of a housing strategy and infrastructure plan to boost growth in the British economy. Weekend reports said the combined package, to be launched alongside the chancellor’s autumn statement, will be worth £50bn, but with most of the money coming from the private sector. Read more on the Building website.