LAND DEVELOPMENT AND DISPOSAL PLAN 2012/13 04 April 2012 Land Development & Disposal Plan 2012/13 Overview of this document The Plan for Growth, published alongside the Budget in 2011 set out the government’s objective to achieve strong, sustainable and balanced economic growth. It stressed the importance of public land in creating economic activity. The Review contained a commitment to ’accelerate the release of public sector land to encourage new homes and jobs’. In support of the Plan for Growth, in June 2011, the Housing Minister Grant Shapps set out the government’s plans to accelerate the release of public land capable of delivering up to 100,000 new homes over the Spending Review period. At the same time, the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) published our first Land Development and Disposal Plan. This is a refresh of that Plan and it once again sets out how we will use our land to accelerate economic activity: the development of homes and employment floorspace and construction activity in support of local priorities. This Plan sets out how we intend to use our landholdings to achieve those objectives, by: y being transparent about our landholdings and our disposal principles and selling land in a way that creates a level playing field for potential end users to access sites when they are brought to market; y not holding land longer than necessary – making sure it is disposed of to support local plans and ambitions and that it is transferred to end users as quickly as possible; and y carrying out disposals on terms that promote development, economic activity and growth. In disposing of land to achieve these objectives, we will be guided by value for money. Disposals are expected to be at market value for land, given the agreed mix of uses. The Plan covers the range of approaches we use to select and work with partners in relation to our landholdings. Our approach depends on the nature of the site. In some cases we will look to procure a partner to build a specific project, in other cases we are selecting a partner to develop a site, in other cases where there is no strategic rationale for the HCA to continue holding a site, or a project is finished, we will look to sell on the asset. For some sites, portfolio disposals or joint ventures might be the best way forward. We also own a significant quantity of non-development land as a result of the activities of our predecessors (eg in the coalfields and former new towns) and we will continue to seek to disengage from that land to other bodies subject to resources. This document sets out: y a summary of the HCA’s landholdings – including key changes during 2011/12 with the transfer of landholdings to the HCA from the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) and from the HCA to the Greater London Authority (GLA) in London; y the principles by which the Agency disposes of its landholdings; y an overview of the landholdings that the Agency plans to bring forward for development or to dispose of over the 2012/13 financial year, and an indication of the disposal pipeline for remainder of the Spending Review period. This Plan builds on feedback from last year and provides a much more detailed development and disposal pipeline. The recent changes to our landholdings mean that this Plan is inevitably a live document. We continue to work with local partners, including new stewardship partnerships, to identify the best strategy for each site. This means, for example, Page 2 Land Development & Disposal Plan 2012/13 that the indicative development and disposal pipeline post April 2013 does not yet include assets transferred from the RDAs in September 2011. These will be added in the next refresh of the Plan. This Plan is intended as a forward look. By June 2012, we will publish a review of activity in 2011/12, which looks back at disposals in that year. By the autumn we will publish a refresh of this Plan, including incorporating all the recently transferred assets into the forward pipeline. The primary audience for this document is assumed to be those carrying out development in the housing, commercial and mixed use sectors, who may be potential purchasers of HCA landholdings. It is also intended to provide transparency about our approach to land to our local partners. For the purpose of this document, the term ‘landholding’ is used to describe land and property that we own and manage, and that can be liabilities as well as assets. Page 3 Land Development & Disposal Plan 2012/13 Contents 1. The HCA’s landholding portfolio .............................................................................................5 1.1 Overview of the landholding portfolio .............................................................................5 1.2 Landholding categories ..................................................................................................5 1.3 Geographic split .............................................................................................................7 1.4 Transparency .................................................................................................................7 2. Development and land disposal principles..............................................................................8 2.1 Market context................................................................................................................9 2.2 Planning .........................................................................................................................9 2.3 Local authority and LEP involvement in the use of HCA land ......................................10 2.4 Use of receipts .............................................................................................................10 2.5 Alignment .....................................................................................................................10 2.6 De-risking .....................................................................................................................12 2.7 Procurement and disposal routes.................................................................................13 2.8 Disposal terms and conditions .....................................................................................16 2.9 Contribution to the government’s Housing Strategy made by HCA land......................18 3. The HCA’s development and disposal opportunities ............................................................21 3.1 East and South East.....................................................................................................22 3.2 Midlands .......................................................................................................................29 3.3 North East, Yorkshire and The Humber .......................................................................38 3.4 North West ...................................................................................................................46 3.5 South and South West .................................................................................................52 Cover image: Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone, Bristol – Courtesy of SWRDA Page 4 Land Development & Disposal Plan 2012/13 1. The HCA’s landholding portfolio This section describes our portfolio of landholdings. 1.1 Overview of the landholding portfolio 1.1.1 HCA landholdings at the start of 2011/12 As at 31 March 2011, we were responsible for approximately 7,430 ha of land and property assets and liabilities located across England. Our landholdings have been inherited or acquired as a result of the work of our predecessor bodies, or because we have been considered best placed to manage the risks associated with difficult sites or to holistically plan and deliver development opportunities. Our portfolio is a reflection of this history and (using March 2011 data) can be summarised as follows: y The residuary Commission for the New Towns (CNT) portfolio, which was incorporated into English Partnerships when the bodies merged in May 1999 (approximately 4,020 ha); y A portfolio of redundant hospital sites, which was transferred to English Partnerships in April 2005 (approximately 1,500 ha); y Liabilities transferred from public bodies that have been wound up (chiefly Urban Development Corporations and Housing Action Trusts) (approximately 930 ha); and y Other elements of the former English Partnerships portfolio, which is mainly brownfield sites awaiting reclamation and development and includes investment / development sites in urban areas (approximately 980 ha). Because of the timing of production of this document we have used the 31 March 2011 figure as a baseline for the original HCA landholdings and described the transfers of landholdings in and out of the Agency against that number. 1.1.2 Activity that has affected the portfolio during 2011/12 In August 2011, approximately 1,000 ha of coalfield sites were transferred to us from the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs). On 19 September 2011, we managed the transfer of over 300 land and property assets with a combined area of approximately 2,150 ha owned by the RDAs into the Agency. These sites are described as Economic Assets in this document. This transfer has had a significant impact on the nature and geographical arrangement of our portfolio, with a large proportion of assets being commercial development opportunities, and already built and let investment properties. On 1 April 2012, all our London assets transferred into the Greater London Authority (GLA). This means that