New figures back up 2019 report which warned of shortfall
New figures confirm the government has missed its target for selling off publicly owned land for housing.
The government had planned to release land for 160,000 homes as part of its Public Land for Housing programme between 2015 and this year.
But official figures published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) show that as of June last year it had only released land for around 48,000 homes, which have been built.
The latest data also shows that under a second phase of the programme up to March 2019, only 5,500 homes had been delivered.
In a progress report published in May last year the then-housing secretary Kit Malthouse wrote that while sufficient land had been identified for 160,000 homes, “it is clear that the ambition to release this land by 2020 will be achieved to a longer timeframe”.
“Departments have agreed immediate actions to identify more land to bring into the programme and to accelerate disposals where possible to improve performance.”
Malthouse called on individual departments and government to “rise to the challenge, given the urgent need for more housing”.
The latest figures show around 1,400 sites across England had been sold by the government, the bulk coming from the Ministry of Defence, the health department and former MHCLG land.
Nearly a quarter (24%) of the new homes have been built in London, a fifth in the south-east, 15% in the Midlands and 14% in the north.
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