MPs criticise land for homes plan as 'wishful thinking'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34339924

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The government's efforts to sell off surplus land for new housing have been criticised as "wishful thinking dressed up as public policy" by MPs.

In 2011, ministers said they wanted to dispose of enough land in the next four years to build 100,000 homes.

The Public Accounts Committee said no record had been kept of homes built or sale proceeds so it was impossible to gauge progress or value for money.

But officials said targets had been met and were now being expanded.

The Conservative government and its coalition predecessor have both targeted increased sales of surplus public sector land as a key component of their strategy for tackling the acute housing shortage in the country.

The cross-party committee said the government was claiming to have disposed of nearly 950 sites capable of accommodating more than 100,000 homes. Of these, about 35% previously belonged to the Ministry of Defence, while the Homes and Communities Agency and Department of Health accounted for 32% between them.

But it said "basic information" about how many homes had been built as a result, or were under way, did not exist while no record had been kept of the sums raised from the disposals and how they related to prevailing market prices.

'Alarming complacency'

Meg Hillier, the Labour MP who chairs the committee, said the government "appeared simply to have hoped huge numbers of houses would spring up".

"Many thousands of people desperately need homes and an effective land disposal programme should provide two significant benefits: much-needed housing and much-needed cash for the public purse," she said.

"Yet the government has no record of how many homes have been built or are under construction. It has no record of sale proceeds, nor their value in relation to prevailing market prices.

"There is no means of knowing whether taxpayers are getting a good deal from the sale of their land. Its entire approach has been wishful thinking dressed up as public policy. It also demonstrates an alarming complacency over the future of an irreplaceable public asset."

But the Department for Communities and Local Government, which has overall responsibility for the programme, defended its handling of it.

"Previous governments allowed valuable brownfield land to go unused whilst housebuilding levels crashed to their lowest levels since the 1920s," a spokeswoman said.

"We have got the country building again and are releasing surplus government land to protect taxpayers from paying for their upkeep and build the homes families need. This has released enough land to build 109,000 new homes and we now want to go further and faster with land sales for a further 150,000 homes by 2020, helping people achieve their dream of home ownership."