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News Release from: The Town and Country Planning Association | Subject: NHS land transfer
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 26 January 2005
Land transfer for housing a vital first
step
The TCPA has welcomed the ODPM announcement that NHS land would be transferred to the Government to provide affordable housing, but is concerned that it doesn't go far enough.
ODPM announce that NHS land would be transferred to the Government to provide affordable housing The transfer will enable the land to remain under the ownership of the public sector, thereby ensuring that the properties built upon it always remain affordable even after they have been sold through schemes such as the 'right to buy'
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 14 Oct 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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"The problem with the 'right to buy' council housing has been that properties do not remain 'affordable'".
" In other words, the value of the houses put on the market tends to increase with the value of the surrounding properties", TCPA Policy Officer, Robert Shaw, said today.
"By leasing the land and only allowing the house itself to be sold means that the houses will remain affordable even when land values are rocketing up in value." "While this is a very positive start, the process needs to go further, and to achieve this will require other measures to be explored".
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The TCPA has today set out a fourteen point plan for widening the effects of the urban renaissance in England in a new policy statement.
One such measure will be explored in the forthcoming TCPA Tomorrow Series discussion paper by Alan Whitehead MP, entitled 'Putting land to work: the role of a land-swap levy,''.
The paper will outline the principle of the 'land swap'.
"The paper starts from the premise that a levy on land at the point of granting planning permission is an appropriate way of delivering affordable housing, not as a sum of money but as a portion of the land that is proposed for development." Dr Alan Whitehead, member of the TCPA Policy Council writes in his paper.
"In order to achieve planning permission, a landowner would be required to find and purchase parcels of land totalling the same acreage as the levied land (20% of the total development size, for example) in his proposed development within the urban footprint of communities in the region in which his land sits", "This land could then be retained by an appropriate body, such as a Community Land Trust, to provide low price land in perpetuity" A fuller explanation of the 'land swap' is set out in Alan Whitehead MP's4 discussion paper, which can be pre-ordered from the TCPA by calling 020 7930 8903.
Other measures announced today by the Government include: * Publication of Planning Policy Statement 3 (PPS3 - Housing), which will replace PPG3.
The PPS will retain the 'rural exceptions policy' and enable local authorities to more easily develop land designated as employment land for housing.
* 300,000 social housing tenants to gain the 'right to buy' a share in the ownership of their house.
* £65 million will be made available for housing investment in locations outside the Housing Market Renewal Areas in Teeside Valley, West Yorkshire and West Cumbria.
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