Government announces direct commissioning of new homes at five sites

A statement from prime minister David Cameron said the new approach would be tested at the Old Oak Common site in west London, which has been allocated for up to 24,000 new homes and will be developed under the direction of a mayoral development corporation, and at four sites outside London and at a further four sites outside London where direct commissioning is targeted to deliver up to 13,000 new homes.

Outside London, Cameron said homes will be directly commissioned at the proposed new 10,000-home town of Northstowe in Cambridgeshire and on a smaller scale at the Connaught Barracks site in Dover, the Lower Grayling Well site in Essex and the Daedelus Waterfront site in Hampshire.

The direct commissioning of homes at Northstowe was initially proposed in the previous coalition government's National Infrastructure Plan in December 2014 and in the March 2015 Budget.

The Homes and Communities Agency, which owns the Connaught Barracks, Lower Grayling Well and Daedelus Waterfront sites, has struggled to find credible developers because of site-specific requirements for demolition and infrastructure works and the protection of listed buildings.

The prime minister also announced a £1.2 billion fund to prepare under-occupied or disused brownfield sites for the delivery of starter homes by 2020.

Planning expert Jo Miles of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "The government’s statement on direct commissioning leaves many questions unanswered: Will small builders have to meet identified criteria to qualify and how will they apply? How will plot sizes be determined and by who? Will the plots be serviced? Who will fund and provide the infrastructure? Who will secure planning permission/discharge of conditions/obligations? Who will pick up any CIL liabilities?"

"The Centre for Housing Policy at York University, which was appointed by the government in March last year to carry out a feasibility study into direct commissioning at the Northstowe site, explained that it means that '[public agencies] will assume responsibility for developing the land rather than facilitating large or smaller building concerns to do so'. The results of this study are awaited and, with claims that direct commissioning could deliver the construction of new homes 'up to twice as fast as conventional development routes', it will be interesting to see how this delivery model evolves," said Miles.