8 June 2011

Housing Minister Grant Shapps announced today that HM Government plans to release enough land to build as many as 100,000 new homes and support as many as 25,000 jobs by 2015.

The amount of previously-developed land owned by the public sector is more than twice the size of Leicester. The Minister confirmed that by this autumn, every Government department with significant landbanks will publish plans to release thousands of acres of previously-developed land to housebuilders.

Later this year, a new map will be launched to show land and buildings owned by public bodies in each area. A new Community Right to Reclaim Land has been introduced enabling residents to apply to organisations including central Government departments and councils to bring their sites back into use.

Mr Shapps said ‘As one of the country's biggest landlords, the Government has a critical role to play in making sites available for developers so we can get the homes this country needs built.’