Get on our land

Get on our land is a new Inside Housing campaign. Its aim is simple: to free up land on which to build homes.

It sounds so straightforward. The UK needs more homes (and take your pick from rising private rents, unaffordable house prices, slashed state development funding and recent predictions that the 20 years to 2026 will see 4.7 million more households form in England for evidence of the gross mismatch between supply and demand). Yet those who want to build them share a common complaint: lack of land. It’s too expensive, too contaminated, too fraught with planning complications, they say.

That may be so. But the level of housing need is too acute for us to ignore the need to find ways of unlocking land supply for housing development. In 2004 academic Kate Barker said up to 145,000 additional new homes were needed each year to meet demand. Last year 102,570 were built, according to the Federation of Master Builders.

Get on our land has three key aims.

First, it wants the backing of at least 100 organisations and individuals who are committed to doing everything they can to increase the supply of land on which to develop homes. We want our supporters to represent every stage of the development supply chain – from landowner, to developer, to social landlord, to the resident who will only find themselves suitably housed if more homes are built. We need planners, housing professionals, architects and contractors on board. We need local and national politicians. We need you.

Our second goal represents Inside Housing’s side of the bargain. We will work with our readers and backers to produce a charter which outlines ways of easing housing land supply throughout the UK. Our ongoing campaign coverage, in print and online, will further this aim by exploring the current barriers to bringing land forward for development, detailing the potential solutions and publicising schemes where land has been unlocked, in spite of everything.

Finally, we are asking local authorities to take part in a new scheme from the Communities and Local Government department. Its capital and assets
pathfinder programme is a support package designed to help councils identify all surplus public assets in their areas – from vacant public buildings to unused land. All 11 pilot authorities, running since July 2010, include a housing component.

We want new participants to commit to identifying development land as part of the CAP process. Get on our land will bring you in-depth coverage of the pilot areas getting it right.