Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the he National Audit's Office press release of 2 May 2019, Investigation into the government’s land disposal strategy and programmes, and its assertion that the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government expects departments to have released enough land for around 65,000 homes by 2020, against a target of at least 160,000, what the evidential basis is for his Department's estimated performance against that target.
The estimate is based on department’s risk based assessment of their disposal opportunities in the Public Land for Housing programme. The Public Land for Housing programme (2015-20) Programme Handbook for Departments and Arm’s Length Bodies August 2018 sets out how risk ratings are defined, and provides guidance on monitoring, reporting and evidence keeping for the programme. All departments actively manage their pipeline of sites for disposal and apply appropriate risk ratings and mitigation strategies. The Programme Handbook is available via the gov.uk webpages.