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The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has published its first development and land disposal strategy, as part of a wider Government drive announced today by the Housing Minister to bring forward more surplus public sector land for the creation of new homes, employment opportunities and community facilities.
Recognising that land is key to promoting economic growth, housing delivery and community activity, the HCA has published a strategy that sets out the Agency's approach to accelerating its land disposal. The document summarises the HCA’s landholdings, explains the principles for making disposal decisions and sets out an indicative pipeline of sites that have been identified for disposal over the next two years.
The strategy explains that the HCA's key aims will be: transparency about its sites and disposal principles; not to hold onto land longer than necessary; make sure land is disposed to support local plans and ambitions; and land is transferred to end users as quickly as possible. The Agency will also aim to carry out disposals on terms such as a deferred payment model (Build Now, Pay Later) that promote development, economic activity and growth.
Pat Ritchie, Chief Executive of the HCA, said: "Key to the success of economic growth is access to a supply of development land for the creation of new homes and employment opportunities. Through the Local Investment Planning process with partners we have been considering how best we can use the HCA’s own landholdings to help local areas achieve their ambitions and we wanted to set out our approach in an overall strategy.
"As part of our development and land disposal strategy we have also published a list of HCA-owned sites that will be brought to market over the next two years. This includes sites where we have identified that disposal can be accelerated, which should allow 3,000 extra homes to start on site over the next four years. We're accelerating them using a variety of tools to ensure that more people can benefit from improved communities and new homes."
(CD/KMcA)
