MOD to sell off land for thousands of new homes to be built

MOD announces plans to release a further 13 sites, to build thousands of new homes.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has today announced plans to release an additional 13 sites, covering a total of 1,200 hectares, which stretch across the UK, to build around 17,000 new homes.

The homes will contribute to the government’s target of building 160,000 new homes by 2020, with money generated from the land sales being invested back into meeting the needs of the Armed Forces.

The land will include two golf courses at RAF Henlow and Southwick Park, following the confirmation that the estate optimisation strategy would aim to reduce the size of the defence estate by 30% over 25 years.

The optimisation strategy aims to sell off sites that are no longer a long-term Defence requirement, as to reduce unnecessary estate running costs for Defence and result in a smaller, but better, Defence estate which caters for the future Armed Forces and delivers upon the commitments made in Strategic Defence & Security Review 2015 (SDSR15).

The announcement is the third tranche of sites to be released, meaning the MOD has now freed up enough brownfield and surplus public land for up to 39,000 new homes, expected to generate around £930M.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: “We are getting rid of land that we don’t need to build homes that we do, generating hundreds of millions of pounds in the process. Our commitment to protect and increase the budget for our armed forces means that every penny of that will be reinvested into defence, helping to keep Britain safe.”

Network rail has announced plans to unlock land for 12,000 new homes by 2020.

Almost 200 sites across the country have been identified as having development opportunities for housing.

The MOD expects to make further announcements as part of the strategy later in 2016.

 

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