Laing O'Rourke launches public land housebuilding venture

Laing O’Rourke, Legal & General and Touchstone have formed an alliance to work with local councils to deliver up to 2,000 new homes a year.

The alliance is aiming to provide a “one-stop shop” for build to rent housing on local authority sites, offering investment, construction and management services.

It will enable local authorities to lease land to Legal & General, which will then fund Laing O’Rourke to build homes across a range of private rented and affordable tenures. These homes can then be leased from Legal & General by the local authority and managed on its behalf by Touchstone.

There is also the option for the homes to be returned to local authorities at the end of the lease for £1, enabling the authority to own the homes in perpetuity and benefit from capital value growth during the term of the lease.

In addition to the homes delivered, all rental income above the lease payments to Legal & General is retained by the local authority, creating additional revenue streams from the land released into the model.

Stephen Trusler, accommodation sector leader, Laing O’Rourke said: “The crisis in UK housing needs new delivery solutions. Our aim is for this alliance to make a significant contribution to solving that problem, creating new homes for private rental through innovative partnerships with local authorities up and down the country.”

Pete Gladwell, head of public sector partnerships at Legal & General Property, said: “Nobody can offer an all-conquering solution but we can all do our bit to help meet the challenge. What this alliance is trying to do is simple: make accessing quality private sector support as stress-free and financially-beneficial as possible for local authorities.”