Network Rail identifies sites for around 12,000 new homes

The authority has said it will assess the sites "to maximise their housing potential" and has estimated they could support around 12,000 new homes.

The UK government said in its 2016 Budget that the Homes and Communities Agency would work with local planning authorities in Network Rail to release land around railway stations for redevelopment. Network Rail set up a new property company in May, to generate income through the regeneration or disposal of surplus land.

In a statement released last week, the authority said it had now put in place plans "to deliver land for 5,000 homes in London, 3,600 homes in Manchester and the North, 1,700 homes in the Midlands and the East of England and 1,400 homes in the South of England".

The statement said Network Rail would work with developers to release sites "over the next three or four years" and that some sites might be "grouped and sold as multi-site developments".

The 200 sites identified include: land in Chesterton, to the north east of Cambridge, which could accommodate 800 homes; and the former Exchange Station site in Manchester, at which 700 homes are proposed.

Planning expert Jamie Lockerbie of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "The identification of this land for housing will obviously be welcomed by the government as part of its plans to boost house building in the UK. At least some of the land may fit nicely with the proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework which encourage increased housing density around commuter hubs."