MOD quizzed on affordable housing in land sell of

How many homes will be "affordable" for ex-service personnel in MODs land sell off?

The Ministry of Defence is under fire from housing campaigners and councillors after it announced it was to sell off 13 of its sites for housing. The sites that include Stonehouse Barracks in Plymouth will raise £225 million for the Government and create up to 17,000 new homes.

A former member of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee, Richard Younger-Ross is concerned that the sell off is all about cash and not about community.

"When I was a Member of the Defence Select Committee we were critical of the MOD holding on to land it could release for sale," the former MP for Teignbridge said. "Many MPs believed that the land could be used to help create affordable housing. But that was when Labour were in charge. Now under a Tory Government the land is to be sold off, but will local communities really benefit as we had wished. This is going to raise a quarter of a billion pounds for the treasury, but we need to make sure that local communities benefit and truly affordable houses are built. The Minster needs to ensure that there are conditions in the sale on the number of affordable homes to be built. This needs to be in excess of 35% if it is to have a real impact on local housing need. Local Authorities are generally very poor at getting a decent percentage of affordable homes as the developers always claim that the site becomes uneconomic if the percentage is too high and are able to reduce the number of affordable home down to 10-15%. If 35% is in the conditions of the sale they cannot use that excuse.

In the south west there is a chronic shortage of affordable housing. There is a particular problem with a lack of affordable housing for ex-service personnel.

The question is how many houses will be affordable for people in the local community and how many will be affordable for ex-service personnel. They should be the priority."