Local authorities in the Liverpool region have appointed GVA Grimley to undertake a review of the supply of development land in the region.
Councils in Liverpool (town hall pictured), Halton, Knowsley, Cheshire West and Chester, St Helens, Sefton, West Lancashire and Wirral – supported by quango 4NW and the Government Office for the North West – appointed GVA Grimley to undertake an overview study of the development land supply and demand in the region.
The information is set to inform Local Development Framework core strategies in the region. Richard Laming, director of …

Conservative MP Grant Shapps has been named new housing minister by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.

The move is a step up for Shapps who was formerly the Conservative Party’s shadow housing minister. Shapps stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in 1997 and 2001, and won the Welwyn Hatfield in the House of Commons at the 2005 election.

He defended the seat successfully at the 2010 election, held on 6 May. However, as housing minister, he will not have a seat in cabinet in the new coalition government.

His work in the Department for Communities …

Conservative MP Eric Pickles has been appointed secretary of state for the Department for Communities and Local Government, which is responsible for housing and planning.
David Cameron has appointed Pickles, who led Bradford District Council for three years up to 1990, as communities secretary in his new cabinet. Pickles was shadow communities secretary from July 2007 to January 2009, when he became Conservative party chairman.
During his tenure, he pledged to bring planning powers back to a local level, cut regional bureaucracy, and give local authorities more control over housebuilding goals.
Pickles has …

Birmingham City Council is next month expected to approve the setting up of a joint venture to encourage a private rented housing sector in the city.
At a council meeting in June, Birmingham is expected to approve the full business case for the initiative. The council wants to set up a joint venture with private sector partners where it provides land for housing development in return for an equity stake in the venture.
Its partners and debt finance would be expected to fund the new homes.
In a report by the cabinet on …

Housing and planning minister John Healey says affordable housing development is suffering because councils do not negotiate well enough with the private sector.
Labour MP Healey, talking this morning on PublicPropertyUK.com and Property Week’s online pre-election Property Question Time event, said local authorities needed to be more flexible about how they negotiate with private developers if they want to get affordable housing in their areas.
“If I have a criticism, it’s that too many councils are too weak and unskilled to have those discussions with private developers,” he said. Healey said councils …

Liverpool council has agreed to create a Special Purpose Vehicle to transfer 63 acres of council land into a partnership between them and public-private firm InPartnership.
The vehicle, which is called InLiverpool, will look to develop a new residential scheme on the Boot Estate in Norris Green. The master plan for redevelopment was first approved in 1999.
It will seek to create partnerships with private sector developers, such as Countryside properties, and residential social landlords.
All profits made by InLiverpool will be reinvested into further regenerative projects such as new schools and village …

Labour and the Conservatives will go head-to-head on property in a live televised debate just days before the General Election and hosted on Public Property UK.
Labour’s housing and planning minister John Healey and Conservative shadow local government and planning minister Bob Neill will be grilled by Public Property UK’s audience as well as debate chairman, Property Week editor Giles Barrie, on 27 April.
Quiz the ministers yourself on anything from regeneration and planning to housing and the wider economy by submitting your questions to .
Click here to register for the …

Defence Estates has sold the 23-acre RAF Bicester site in Caversfield, Buckinghamshire to City & Country Group.
The Ministry of Defence’s property management arm has sold the £2.6m piece of land to a restoration and conservation company in a bid to preserve 17 Grade II listed buildings on site.
The former MoD Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) site formed the barracks of the RAF Bicester airfield, which was used for training bombers during World War II.
Helen Moore, managing director for City & Country Residential, said: “This is our first purchase from Defence …

Ministry of Defence property arm Defence Estates has appointed consultant WYG to provide advice on its development projects until 2014.
Defence Estates has appointed WYG to a four-year framework to provide professional and technical support services.
Defence Estates manages the military estate including homes for service personnel and their families.
This contract covers a geographical area under DE Operations North through client offices in Lisburn Barracks Northern Ireland, RAF Lossiemouth, HMNB Faslane and Rosyth in Scotland and Catterick Garrison, Sutton Coldfield and RAF Brampton in England.
Clive Anderson, WYG Management Services …

The Royal Town Planning Institute has backed government plans to bypass the planning system for some affordable housing schemes in rural areas.
The RTPI said it backed the plan by government department Communities and Local Government to consult on proposals to allow a limited number of affordable housing to be built in rural villages.
The villages would need to be less than 3,000 people for the schemes to be developed without an individual planning application, subject to the backing of the parish council and the involvement of a registered social landlord as …