Out-Law News 1 min. read
06 Oct 2011, 5:05 pm
Four Government departments have identified the land they own that could be released for new development. A former Government site has already been developed in Guildford to provide 200 homes, the Department for Local Government and Communities said.
Housing Minister Grant Shapps announced his intention to release public land to build as many as 100,000 homes in June this year and since then the Government has been drawing up plans to implement the scheme.
Disposal strategies have been released by the Ministry of Defence; the Department of Health; the Department for Transport, and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Shapps is hoping that much of the land release can be developed in conjunction with the Government's "build now, pay later" model, which is aimed at improving housebuilders' cash flow.
Under this model the Government will release the land to the housebuilders with no upfront cost, so the housebuilder only has to pay for the land when the development is sold.
"I will look to ensure that as much of this public land as possible is available under our innovative Build Now, Pay Later model - helping get developers on site and laying the foundations for these homes as quickly as possible." Shapps said.
The announcement builds on the announcement of the building of 11,000 homes that will be delivered as part of the Homes and Communities Agency land release, published on 8 June 2011.
It is hoped that using previously-developed land owned by the public sector to deliver new homes could also support as many as 200,000 construction and related jobs, 50,000 in every year of the spending review period, the Department for Communities and Local Government said.
