New homes to be built on public sector land

The government is to hand over public sector land to help the development of over 200,000 new homes across Britain.

Chancellor Gordon Brown has revealed that the regeneration agency English Partnerships has already bought about 100 surplus sites from the National Health Service and is looking at another 700 or more, such as land owned by the Ministry of Defence and sites near London railway stations.

This land will be used for the construction of affordable properties as part of the government’s drive to help more people gain a foothold on the high-price property ladder.

Steve Lidgate, chairman of The Housing Forum, said: “One of the biggest criticisms aimed at the government to date has been that they have focused primarily on stimulating demand as opposed to supply. 

"The announcement certainly balances recent initiatives such as Homebuy and the extension of stamp duty threshold which focus on generating demand. 

"Huge steps have been made in recent years with a wide variety of initiatives in the supply chain designed to increase the supply of new homes, but land and planning are always quoted as the key barriers," he said.

"The Housing Forum continues to work across the sector to address these issues and has recently set up a working group tasked with how to increase innovation and best practice in the supply of new homes."