- Plan to build 10,000 homes on MoD land abandoned in 2022
- MoD identified new sites for 35,000 homes; no progress yet
- Labour criticizes lack of government action on housing
A government plan to repurpose idle military land for new dwellings was secretly abandoned two years ago, and no houses were built.
The idea was to build up to 10,000 new dwellings, but it was halted when the Ministry of Defence (MoD) removed most of the selected sites from the program.
Earlier this year, the MoD identified additional surplus “brownfield” land that might be utilized to build nearly 35,000 new dwellings.
However, the government has failed to release or sell that land.
Labour focused its general election campaign on housing, promising to build 1.5 million new houses over the next five years.
On Thursday, Housing Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner stated that housebuilding has been hampered by “a failure to ensure that the development system is working properly.”
She was speaking at the introduction of a new team of planning specialists who would be sent to possible housing sites to resolve roadblocks and local difficulties.
Polly Neate, chief executive of the housing charity Shelter: “Government-owned land that is well located and suitable for housing is hard to come by, so when it is available, it must be used to deliver more social rent homes for low-income families.”
The now-defunct MoD program, which began in 2019 and entailed a collaboration with Homes England, the government’s housing agency, identified seven initial sites for development.
The previous Conservative administration established Homes England to acquire land and assist in constructing more affordable housing.
One site at MoD Stafford was released to Homes England but has yet to be constructed.
Another near Ripon, North Yorkshire, is still being considered for private development and may accommodate 1,300 new homes.
The government withdrew the remaining five sites from the program: Prince William of Gloucester Barracks in Grantham, Lincolnshire; Swynnerton Camp in Stone, Staffordshire; RAF Henlow in Bedfordshire; Chetwynd Barracks in Chilwell, Nottinghamshire; and Wethersfield Airfield in Braintree, Essex.
The reasons for the pullout included military needs following the Ukraine invasion and Home Office preparations to shelter asylum seekers.
It is believed that some of the terrain initially designated was kept under MoD control and utilized to train Ukrainian soldiers.
Wethersfield Airfield was one of the designated sites, but the Home Office took it over and began hosting asylum seekers in July of last year.
The initial proposal was to build up to 4,850 dwellings on the airfield site, which comprised unused runways and other land, but the MoD chose to keep it.
The Home Office then took over former barracks buildings on one part of the site to house 800 asylum seekers, claiming it was a cheaper option to hotels.
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Following these decisions, the MoD’s contract with Homes England was secretly terminated in April 2022.
In March of this year, the MoD conducted an additional evaluation to evaluate how much unoccupied military land was eligible for housing.
According to the assessment, the remaining land may support 34,250 housing units, including 1,300 in Ripon.
None have yet been licensed or sold to private developers, but the MoD expects to do so in the future.
The information used to evaluate excess land levels contains projections for potential sales in the following years.
A government representative responded: “Some sites can take longer to regenerate and may also be used for much-needed infrastructure, like new schools or health services.
According to the spokeswoman, the MoD has released “1,500 hectares for commercial, residential, private, and government development since 2019”.
