The Homes and Communities Agency has more than 80 public land sites for sale and will bring a further 40 more sites to market over the next 18 months.

It is estimated these sites will support more than 5,000 homes as well as land for industry and business.

Over 20% of the sites already have outline or detailed planning permission.

Click for details of the Land Development and Disposal Plan

Housing Minister Brandon Lewis said: “Using surplus public sector land for housing has helped us get the country building again with the number of new homes up by 25%.

“Selling off these sites will allow us to go even further, delivering on our ambition to support a further 160,000 homes, while providing a significant boost to local economies and the taxpayer.

“I now want to see developers getting shovels in the ground as quick as possible.”

Chief Executive of the Homes and Communities Agency, Andy Rose, said: “We will use our commercial expertise and local market knowledge to make land attractive to house builders, to help get homes built more quickly and meet local priorities.

“As the government’s disposal agency for surplus public land, we are well placed to support other departments and agencies in meeting their contribution to the government’s land programme.”

The HCA exceeded its contribution to the government’s last land programme by more than 3,000 homes.

In total, Whitehall departments released enough public sector land to support more than 109,000 homes during the last parliament.

The Land Development and Disposal Plan published today also sets out some key principles of land disposal, which followed a review of the HCA’s processes and were developed in cooperation with the Home Builders Federation and its members.

These include clearer objectives for each site prior to sale, early and meaningful market engagement with a transparent pipeline of sites and clearer commercial terms.

David O’Leary, policy director at the Home Builders Federation said: “To be successful, public land disposal processes must be as clear and efficient as possible, taking account of the needs of all house builders, from SMEs seeking small sites through to large national companies with the capacity to develop very large sites.

“The new processes should not only help to accelerate the delivery of much-needed housing but also allow more smaller house builders to compete for sites and build more new homes.”