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Government ahead of schedule for releasing land, says Minister


Housing minister Grant Shapps has told MPs that the Government is ahead of schedule in its plans to release public land to build 100,000 new homes, according to an Inside Housing report .

The Government has already found enough land to provide 80,000 new homes, Shapps said whilst giving evidence at the Communities and Local Government (CLG) select committee’s enquiry into the supply of new housing, according to the report.

"The upshot is that we are getting close [to providing 100,000]. We are at 80,000 at the moment and I would describe that as being ahead of where we thought we’d be," said Shapps.

The Government announced plans in June to accelerate the release of its surplus formerly-used land that could be used to build new homes. The Government's aim is to release enough land to house up to 100,000 homes within the spending review period to 2015.

Shapps spoke on the ‘Build Now, Pay Later’ model during the CLG evidence session and described the deal as a "win-win-win" situation.  Under the 'Build Now, Pay Later' model, house builders pay for the land after they have started work on the new homes, which is aimed at improving cash flow and enabling them to start building straight away.

"The Prime Minister and I are very enthusiastic about build now, pay later," he told the CLG committee, according to the report. "I’m keen to say to local authorities that there’s not much benefit to hanging on to land. We should no longer pride ourselves on how much public land we have; we would rather have the nation housed."

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