Analysis: government's land of opportunity

• Government Property Finder map reveals extent of land available to ease housing issue

• More than 70,000 homes could be built on available public land in most at need areas

Housebuilders accused of land banking have long said it is government that holds the key to unlocking residential development in the UK, and now a new mapping tool, launched last week by the Cabinet Office, shows by just how much.

The Government Property Finder map lists publicly, for the first time, every piece of property and land owned by the government. And under new “Right to Contest” rules, Joe Public can now challenge whether any of those assets are being used effectively. If government cannot justify their use, then it has to release the property.

So, what could government release in areas most in need? Estates Gazette takes a look at 10 UK boroughs outside London that are experiencing the most chronic housing shortages.

According to Savills, the affected boroughs need a ?combined 5,657 homes a year to be built to accommodate demand. Just 870 were delivered between April 2013 and March 2014.

Government owns more than 3,500 acres of land and 800,000 sq ft of buildings across those boroughs (see box).

Mark Charter, residential partner and head of the Oxford office at Carter Jonas, says one acre of land could accommodate 20 homes, meaning there is potential for more than 70,000 new homes on public land in the area, dramatically appeasing the shortage.

The government’s largest landholding within the 10 boroughs is Oxford, where it has 143,630 sq ft of assets and 3,490 acres, including the Oxford driving test centre and a number of schools. Oxford needs 600 new homes pa, yet just 60 were built in the 12 months to 31 March.

Charter says: “There is so little land availability in Oxford because of green belt restrictions and geographical complications such as flood plains. The only way new development will come through is by initiatives such as this, which could bring existing government sites forward for homes. The Government Property Finder map will be welcomed by developers.”

EG’s investigation shows that Harrogate could also benefit significantly from the release of public land. The Yorkshire town has fallen short of its housing target in 2013-14 by 665 homes, but government’s 23 acres and 164,941 sq ft of buildings could ease that by 460 homes.

Residential developers have been working hard to get housebuilding starts up, with numbers reaching 133,930 in the year to June, according to figures from the department for Communities and Local Government.

However, while this is the highest number in more than six years, it is well below the pre-recession peak of 170,440 and the 221,000 new homes estimated to be needed each year.

Martyn Evans, creative director at developer Cathedral Group, part of Development Securities, warns that government should not be too hasty to “sell off the family silver”.

“I would want to make sure there are not quick-fire sales of land for housing, and instead see that thought goes into developing schemes,” he says.

Iain Murray, head of PRS at Criterion Capital, is also cautious. “Our biggest concern is that the mechanism to purchase will be bound by a plethora of red tape and procurement rules,” he says.

Despite these concerns, Murray welcomes the ethos behind the map. He says: “Applied properly, this initiative could play a significant role in regenerating town centres and delivering much-needed housing stock.”

With more than 100m sq ft of buildings in its portfolio and a developer community finding it increasingly hard to buy sites, government could be holding the key to unlock the country’s housing problem.

Public land supply in low housing boroughs

Borough	Sq ft owned by government	Acres owned by government
Adur	0	10.4
Brentwood	147,756	2
Brighton & Hove	227,119	0
Castle Point	0	0
Guildford	70,338	7.4
Harrogate	164,941	23
Mole Valley	0	0
Oxford	143,630	3,490
Waverley	39,631	0.86
West Oxfordshire	0	0