Many in the housing and construction industry may have missed the publication of the government’s fresh strategy for more houses to be built on publicly owned-land. Better Estate, Better Services, Better Government (published in recess) outlined an expanded One Public Estate (OPE) programme. Its enhanced remit aims to bring more frontline services like job centres and local authority benefits services under one roof, freeing up land for 25,000 new homes over the next two years.

This goal will contribute to the overall government target for 160,000 new homes to be built on surplus publicly owned land by 2020. These targets are, on the face of it, good news for a construction industry struggling with recession, low rates of new private work and facing the uncertainties of Brexit. Yet the public sector has often struggled to make significant inroads in disposing of surplus land, meaning development – and new work for the construction industry – has been excruciatingly slow.

Last year, for example, the Department for Communities and Local Government reported it had identified 91 per cent of the land needed to meet the 160,000 target, though only 9 per cent of the land had actually been sold off. Indeed, research by the New Economics Foundation estimated that, at current build rates, the sell-off would take 12 years longer than the projected target.

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