RSS FEED
LDA plans London-wide housing company
Published: 2009-11-30 09:52:33
The London Development Agency (LDA) plans a new London-wide housing company to bring forward land for development in a more cost-effective way than could be done by the London boroughs and other public sector landowners on their own.
Although still at an early stage, the idea is to take the already established asset-backed models (LHC and LABV) and create a vehicle that would be open to all 33 London boroughs.
A major advantage would be the consequent reduction of both costs and time compared with each borough establishing its own scheme.
According to Richard Blakeway, Boris Johnson's housing adviser: "It's been very expensive and time consuming for each local authority to set up vehicles and bring land forward, (so) rather than councils having to do it individually, we'd like to set up a single vehicle which will reduce and share upfront costs". He also said the planned London-wide company would provide councils with technical expertise to assemble land for development and that "there certainly seems to be an appetite among local authorities".
Although the company plan is still embryonic with no set timetable, Mr Blakeway says the idea would speed up housing delivery because "for boroughs, the costs of releasing land mean it is slow to come forward, which is why the LDA is exploring a single vehicle, through which boroughs can speed-up the release of land, reduce costs and generate financial benefits".
The LDA's board is to consider the housing company proposal in more detail early in 2010. There is as yet no specific start date for building on LDA-owned land, but the plan is to get land suitable for housing on the market as soon as feasible. According to the LDA, the organisation has no long-term interest in holding onto a bank of land.