New initiative releases land for 8,000 homes in Midlands

We've announced a programme of public sector land releases that could see up to 8,000 homes built across the Midlands in the next three to five years.

Known as the Midlands Local Land Initiative, it releases more HCA and other surplus public sector sites to the market. The aim is to take a long-term, structured approach to the phasing of public land releases in order to increase housing supply and secure viable new developments.

The initiative follows in the footsteps of the announcement by Housing Minister Grant Shapps last week, where he named some Midlands sites amongst the first set of land releases that could be made available on a deferred payment ‘Build Now, Pay Later’ basis , designed to kickstart more housebuilding The HCA is leading on this innovative scheme.

Paul Spooner, Executive Director for the HCA Midlands, said: “The Local Land Initiative is part of our remit to increase housing supply by bringing forward more public land for housing and mixed use development, and being flexible to create attractive market opportunities.

“By managing a pipeline of sites that are released to the market in a strategic manner, we can make best use of public land assets in conjunction with local authorities for the benefit of communities.

“The support from local authorities for the programme has been fantastic, many releasing their own sites into the programme – some utilising our Delivery Partner Panel (DPP), which is a framework of pre-procured developers that can save time and money in the procurement process.”

“The sites we have launched are at different stages of the disposal process, but we envisage the sites being able to deliver thousands of high quality new homes over the coming years.”

The Midlands Local Land Initiative was launched recently at a HCA-hosted event in Nottingham for local authorities, housing associations and developers in the East and South Midlands. This brought together the LLI programme for the HCA’s whole Midlands area, building on an event for the West Midlands held in Birmingham last year.

Some sites included in the first phase of the Midlands Local Land Initiative are:

• Ashton Green, Leicester
• Cotgrave Colliery and Town Centre, Rushcliffe, Notts
• Ransome Road, Northampton
• Kingsmead South (sites 1 & 2), Milton Keynes
• Osmaston Regeneration Partnership, Derby
• Shirebrook South, Bolsover

The sites will be brought to market over the next 6-12 months.

Read more about the accelerated land announcement.
        

Read more about our work in the Midlands.

Photo caption: Cotgrave colliery and town centre is one of the sites in the first phase of the Midlands Local Land Initiative, which could see up to 8,000 homes built over the next three to five years.