The Department of Communities and Local Government has been accused of inconsistencies and a ‘wide interpretation’ of data in a damning report by the National Audit Office into the release of public land for homes.
The NAO said while government had met its target to release land for 100,000 homes by 2015, freeing sites which could house 109,590 homes, this was a notional number of expected homes and not actual homes built.
It said the DCLG had taken a wide interpretation of sites sold, included land sold before the targets were set and accused it of counting sites as sold when the owning organisations moved outside the public sector even if the land was not developed.
This included sites held by Royal Mail and British Waterways, accounting for more than 10,000 homes.
The NAO added that the DCLG failed to collect information on the amount of money raised from sales or the number of homes actually built. It called for a review of future government land sale programmes, requesting clarification on how the government intends to measure progress and for someone to take responsibility for monitoring land after it is disposed of.
RICS labelled the news disappointing, saying original targets were unambitious as 100,000 homes represents less than a year’s worth of new housing need in Britain.
“The NAO report has shown what was suspected by many. That releasing public land across so many departments and agencies would not be easy and wouldn’t result in the homes we needed, in the places people wanted to live,” said Jeremy Blackburn, RICS head of policy.
A DCLG spokesman said it would consider and learn any lessons from the NAO findings, and added: “We now want to go further and faster still with land sales for a further 150,000 homes by 2020 while protecting taxpayers by cutting the hoarding of vacant public land and disused buildings.”
