UK government asks departments to release land for housing

The UK government is rolling out plans to sell public land worth an estimated £10 billion to address a chronic housing shortage and help cut its record budget deficit. Housing minister Grant Shapps would ask all government departments with significant land banks to identify land suitable for sale for homes, by autumn.

As many as 100,000 new homes could come up on land currently with the UK government, over the next four years, according to projections.

Every government department with a large landbank has been instructed to publish plans by the autumn on how it planned to release space for building.

"Build now, pay later" schemes would also be launched to help companies overcome cashflow issues and payment of purchase costs could be deferred until work got under way on the new homes.

The public sector holds over 16,600 hectares of previously developed land, which is an area more than double the size of Leicester.

According to Shapps, as one of the country's biggest landlords, the government had a critical role to play in making sites available for developers so that people could get the homes the country needs built.