Government Has No Idea How Many Houses Built On Publicly Owned Land Sold To Developers

The Government has no idea how many houses have been built on publicly owned land that has been sold off to developers – or how much money has been raised for the taxpayer, a damning new Parliamentary report has revealed. Ministers claimed before the last election that enough Government land had been sold since 2011 to accommodate more than 100,000 homes across nearly 950 sites. But Parliament’s spending watchdog has warned that ministers or officials do not know how many houses had actually been built, how much the land was sold for or whether it was disposed of at below market price. It accused the CLG, which has responsibility for the scheme, of “alarming complacency”, particularly at a time when public sector spending was being squeezed. Read more on the Independent website.

Ministers Told To Find State-Owned Land for 150,000 New Homes

Ministers will be urged to find thousands of acres of state-owned land to create more sites for housebuilding. Greg Clark, the new Communities Secretary, wants to use the land for 150,000 homes by 2020. He will tell departments across Whitehall they need to ‘loosen their grip’ on sites that are lying idle. It could see homes being built on land owned by the NHS or the Ministry of Defence.  Over the past five years, Whitehall departments released enough land to build 103,000 new homes, but Mr Clark is understood to want more. Read more on the Daily Mail website.