Central Government property to become available

The Right to Contest scheme is an extension of the Right to Challenge programme that operates in local government, which currently gives people the power to contest the use of vacant or surplus council-owned land and property.

Plans to extend the rights to central government land were announced in last year’s Spending Review and have been subsequently developed by the Cabinet Office. Under the scheme, the public will be able to submit applications challenging the use of sites, and how it could be put to better economic use. Applications will then be considered by a committee comprising Treasury and Cabinet Office ministers, with the land-holding department.

Land will only not be released to the open market if the location is vital for operational use or there are other overriding reasons, the Treasury said.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said: “The government is the custodian of the taxpayers’ assets. We certainly should not act as some kind of compulsive hoarder of land and property that could be better used for things like housing and local economic growth.”

Independent estimates suggest the public sector holds as much as 40 per cent of developable land and around 27 per cent of brownfield land suitable for housing.

The Cabinet Office is also set to launch a ‘Rightmove-style’ search engine of all government property, which will allow the portfolio to be searched by town and postcode with maps showing the extent of the estate.

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