The Homes and Communities Agency will bring forward enough public land by March 2015 to support delivery of over 2,000 more homes than originally anticipated, according to new figures.
The Agency’s Land Development and Disposal Plan (LDDP) sets out how the HCA will use its experience of managing large portfolios of land and assets to potentially bring a potential over 200 sites to market between now and 31 March 2015, of which around 480 ha is for residential and around 900 ha is for commercial and other uses.
Sites in the LDDP will build on the housing capacity of those already disposed, bringing the HCA’s contribution to government’s commitment to dispose of enough land with capacity for 100,000 homes, to 16,209; up from 14,000 in the last LDDP published in June.
The LDDP also includes for the first time details of sites newly acquired from central government departments and their bodies, including the Department of Health, the Ministry of Justice and the British Rail Residuary Board.
The 19 newly acquired sites alone have capacity to support over 2,000 new homes, subject to planning. A second tranche of acquisitions – predominantly NHS sites – which could have capacity to support up to 800 further new homes, will be announced in due course and it is likely that the HCA’s housing capacity target will increase further as these sites are acquired.
HCA Chief Executive, Andy Rose, said: “There are already nearly 70 sites being marketed on our website, and today we have set out a further indicative pipeline that will give our partners development opportunities right up to the end of the spending period.
“We are the third largest contributor of land supply in government and this is core business for the HCA, building on our commercial expertise, experience of managing large portfolios of land and investment, and local knowledge.
“As set out in the Spending Round outcome, from April 2015 the HCA will take on a role as the disposal body of choice for central government in bringing public land to market which will help improve the efficiency of government land transactions with the private sector.”
Prior to marketing, the HCA takes appropriate steps to prepare the sites for development – such as remediation, putting in infrastructure, or taking them through the early stages of planning – to optimise their attractiveness to developers. Sites are disposed of on a competitive basis, many through the HCA’s Developer Partner Panel, which speeds up and reduces the cost of procuring a development partner for the HCA and other public bodies; while many will be sold on a Build Now Pay Later basis, improving developer cashflows and making marginal sites viable.
The HCA also announced that funding has been made available under the Public Land Infrastructure Fund to de-risk disposal of 54 sites – including those acquisitions detailed above – with potential capacity for over 20,000 homes, subject to planning. The funding will help public sector landowners to take sites forward through the planning system and/or put in up front infrastructure prior to bringing sites to market. The sites include existing HCA land such as Avenue Coking Works in Derbyshire and Severalls Hospital Site in Essex, as well as some of the newly acquired sites set out in the LDDP. Funding is also being released to the Department of Health and NHS Trusts, and the Ministry of Defence, as the two largest contributors to the government disposal programme.
The Land Development and Disposal Plan and current development opportunities are available from the HCA website. HCA development opportunities are also detailed on the government site Find Me Some Government Space.
