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Land Use

Volume 464: debated on Monday 8 October 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will take steps to prevent land banking by housing developers. (154385)

The Department for Communities and Local Government's Green Paper "Homes for the future: more affordable more sustainable" (July 2007) describes the steps that we have already taken through the development control process to encourage developers to utilise land for building homes more swiftly. We have said that we will consider whether further measures are needed. We have also proposed to explore further how to ensure consistent and comprehensive declaration of developers' total residential land holdings within their accounts.

The Callcutt Review of House Building Delivery, which we expect to receive later this year, will examine the acquisition, holding and disposal of land for house building, and the influence of land supply on levels of house building production. In addition, the Office of Fair Trading has announced a market study into house building in the UK. The study, expected to report in summer 2008, will consider whether land which is suitable for new homes is being brought forward for development. We will consider land banking further in the context of these wider reviews.