Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to paragraphs 1.296 and 1.297 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what progress his Department has made by estimated capacity of land sold since March 2016 in identifying and disposing of land to meet the Government's commitment.

Increasing the supply of land for new homes is central to this Government’s vision of a country that works for everyone. As a major landowner the Government has a crucial role to play in managing its estate more efficiently to secure best value for money for the taxpayer, boost growth and help support the building of new homes.

The Government has an ambition to sell land with capacity for at least 160,000 homes by the end of March 2020. Progress towards meeting this ambition is set out in Table 3 of the Public Land for Housing Programme Annual Report published in February 2017, which shows that between 8 May 2015 and 30 September 2016, the Department released land with capacity for 3,516 homes.

Public Land for Housing Annual Report 2017 (published February 2017):

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-land-for-housing-programme-2015-to-2020-annual-report

Housing capacity of sites sold by the five largest landowning departments:

The Department’s target of £1.95 billion (referred to in paragraph 1.297 of the Spending Review publication referenced in the question) relates to the Spending Review period from 2016-17 to 2020-21. Information on the value of disposals for the 2016-17 financial year is not yet available.