Shapps in talks with Royal Mail and BBC to find unused land
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Housing Minister Grant Shapps says he is working with organisations including the BBC, Network Rail and the Royal Mail, to identify unused land and buildings that could be released for house-building.
In a speech today, Shapps claimed he has already identified enough government land to build 80,000 homes and is on course to release enough land for 100,000 homes by 2015.
The Ministry of Justice, HM Treasury, the Home Office and the Department for Energy and Climate Change are also looking at their land holdings.
The housing minister also announced further details of the government’s mortgage guarantee scheme.
Shapps says the scheme is on track to launch in March and will be open to UK citizens buying on new build houses and flats up to £500,000 as their main home - whether they are first-time buyers or moving up the ladder.
Shapps says: “The pattern of the past has been to produce endless policies and initiatives that simply gather dust on Whitehall shelves and lead to inaction and inertia.
“But with the Prime Minister putting housing centre stage on the road to economic recovery, I am determined that we shall not repeat these mistakes of the past.
“That’s why I’m pulling out all the stops for those who want to get on the property ladder, so from March the NewBuy Guarantee scheme will be on hand to help people buying newly built properties with just a fraction of the deposit they would normally need.”
Shapps also announced details for “ending the tax on tenants”.
The Minister said that for years, councils have been captives of a centralised system, surrendering their social rents to the government to decide how best to redistribute it. This meant that the majority of councils lost millions in social rent - in some cases over half of what they collected.
Shapps today confirmed that councils will be allowed to keep the rents they collect, giving them an average 15% more to spend on managing and maintaining their homes.
He also confirmed proposals to bring “outdated” protections for leaseholders back in line with changing property prices.
Shapps proposes to raise the £25,000 “value limit” - or notional annual rental value to £100,000, enabling many leaseholders to stay in their home when their lease comes to an end.
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Readers' comments (1)
Anonymous | 1 Feb 2012 4:34 pm
I'm sure the queen could sell the freehold of her land aswell, as she got it for free.
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