Watchdog slams monitoring failures in programme to dispose of public land

The National Audit Office has criticised the Department for Communities and Local Government over its failure properly to monitor a programme to sell public land to build a potential 100,000 homes.

The intention was to sell enough government land by March 2015 to reach the target.

However, an investigation by the NAO found that no information had been collected on the amount of money raised or how many homes had actually been built.

“In future land sales, responsibility for monitoring what happens to land after disposal should be made clear,” the watchdog said.

The NAO report, which can be viewed here, found that:

• The target measured a notional number of expected homes, not actual homes built.
• There was no supporting documentation or economic evidence behind the target or how it was allocated to departments.
• Departmental progress in disposing of land was “slower than expected and government had to take action to increase land sales”. It closely monitored progress and took various approaches to increase delivery, such as transferring land to the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) for disposal, increasing central support for difficult sites and providing financial assistance to departments to help with the cost of preparing sites.
• By the end of March 2015, the Government had disposed of enough land with capacity for an expected 109,950 homes. In total, the land disposed of comprised 942 sites.
• The Department for Communities and Local Government applied a wide interpretation of the land that could be counted towards the target. The total notional 109,590 homes figure included 15,740 homes on land that the public sector disposed of before the target was set. “Land sold for the 15,740 homes was counted because it was expected to be built on during the programme however this is inconsistent with the scoring of land sold during the course of the programme, where homes will be built long after the programme closed in March 2015.” In addition, surplus land was categorised as sold when the organisation owning the sites moved outside the public sector even if the sites were not developed: for example, sites owned by Royal Mail (2,584 homes) and British Waterways (8,199 homes).
• The Government recognised that disposal of surplus land, at an accelerated rate, would not necessarily lead to increased home building. Departments used a range of disposal methods and partnering approaches with developers with the aim of ensuring homes were built and profits shared.
• Departments did not routinely monitor what happened to a site after disposal so there was no information on how many homes had been built on sold land. “The NAO is unable to report the actual number of homes built to date as the information is not collected.”
• The DCLG did not collect information on the amount of money raised from the sales. “Without data on the number of homes or sales proceeds, it is difficult to assess if departments obtained good value from their disposals and, more broadly, if government secured value for money from the programme as a whole.”

The NAO noted that there was a new process for land disposals from 2015-16 with new targets for central government and associated bodies to deliver at least £5bn of land and property sales between 2015 and 2020 and an ambition to release land for up to 150,000 homes in the same period.

“In taking forward this new target, the DCLG and the Homes and Community Agency should review and share the lessons from this programme, including the need for the Department to clarify how it intends to measure progress through sales proceeds or number of potential homes; and for someone to take responsibility for monitoring what happens to land after disposal within the target period,” the watchdog argued.