Around 600 acres of surplus public sector land has been put up for sale by the UK Government.

It is understood the move is part of a plan to boost local growth and deliver thousands of new properties towards the governments one million homes target.

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has more than 80 public land sites for sale and will bring a further 40 more sites to market over the next 18 months.

These sites are estimated to support over 5,000 homes as well as land for industry and business.

The HCA added over 20% of the sites already have outline or detailed planning permission.

Housing Minister Brandon Lewis has now urged developers to "get shovels in the ground as quick as possible" as the government embarks on the largest housebuilding programme since the 1970s.

"Using surplus public sector land for housing has helped us get the country building again with the number of new homes up by 25%," he said.

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"Selling off these sites will allow us to go even further, delivering on our ambition to support a further 160,000 homes, while providing a significant boost to local economies and the taxpayer."

Chief Executive of the HCA, Andy Rose, said: "We will use our commercial expertise and local market knowledge to make land attractive to house builders, to help get homes built more quickly and meet local priorities.

"As the government's disposal agency for surplus public land, we are well placed to support other departments and agencies in meeting their contribution to the government's land programme."

The Land Development and Disposal Plan published yesterday, 26 January also sets out some key principles of land disposal, which followed a review of the HCA's processes and were developed in cooperation with the Home Builders Federation (HBF) and its members.

These include clearer objectives for each site prior to sale, early and meaningful market engagement with a transparent pipeline of sites and clearer commercial terms.

David O'Leary, policy director at the HBF, said: "To be successful, public land disposal processes must be as clear and efficient as possible, taking account of the needs of all house builders, from SMEs seeking small sites through to large national companies with the capacity to develop very large sites.

"The new processes should not only help to accelerate the delivery of much-needed housing but also allow more smaller house builders to compete for sites and build more new homes."

(LM/MH)