In his monthly column in The MJ, Localis chief executive Alex Thomson discusses Localis’ conference season goings-on and the cross-party support for devolution in the UK.
The majority of additional borrowing capacity made available to town halls to fund the building of new council homes remains untouched, the communities minister has revealed.
Speaking at a Localis fringe event at Conservative Party Conference 2014, Duncan Bonfield of Land Securities said the developer were “struggling” to make the Ebbsfleet garden city development viable.
Ed Miliband has announced plans for new council-led corporations to boost housebuilding. The Labour leader, speaking at the beginning of the party’s annual conference in Manchester, announced under a Labour government councils would set up New Homes Corporations as part of plans to increase housebuilding to 200,000 homes a year by 2020.
The whole housing sector should consider using off-site construction to increase the pace of house building, Brandon Lewis has said.
Councils will redevelop 13.5bn of assets by 2020, signalling a move away from selling off buildings and land, a new report reveals.
One in six councils have been forced to dispose of public assets ?for less than optimal value?, according to a Localis report.
Up to 13.5 billion of local authority assets will be redeveloped over the next five years as councils ‘act more like property developers’ in the face of on-going austerity, a study by think-tank Localis has found.
Councils are turning to property development to help balance their books in the face of funding cuts, but risk being short-changed by developers, according to a report.
Public assets worth 13.5bn are set to be redeveloped in the next five years, according to think tank Localis.