Community Right to Reclaim Land

The Department for Communities and Local Government has created various new Community Rights and Community Right to Build.

This page provides information about the new Community Right to Reclaim Land. It will help communities to improve their local area by making information about land owned by public bodies more easily available, and help to ensure that underused or unused land owned by public bodies and some other organisations is brought back into beneficial use.

Background

Huge areas of previously developed land are left vacant or under-used in England. Much is owned by public bodies. A 2008 survey of Previously Developed Land estimated that 7,500 Hectares (about 18,500 acres) of publicly owned land, suitable for housing, was vacant or underused - the equivalent of about 18,500 local park football pitches. Finding out who owns this land or information about it has been difficult and getting your request heard to do something about it, even more so - until now.

What we are doing

1. Finding out who owns what

We have made it easier to find out who owns what. We have combined information from many sources into a single public sector land ownership data set. This is still a work in progress but you can now see the data on the map (external link). Open data is available to download via the map. More up to date information, refreshed quarterly, about the land and buildings central government owns can be found on data.gov.uk (external link) from early October 2011.

Please note: The map only shows static information. Data has been supplied by willing participants at a set time. As a result coverage is not complete. Additional information should be obtained before being used for decision making. DCLG makes no representations or warranties about the accuracy or completeness of the information.

2. Getting land back into use (The Public Request to Order Disposal process)

We have also made it easier to bring land back into use by reforming the Public Request to Order Disposal process (referred to by many in the past as PROD) and increasing the numbers of organisations covered by it.

Anyone can send a Request to the Secretary of State setting out why they think:

land or property covered by the Request process is under-used or vacant,
there are no suitable, consulted upon and publicly tested plans in place or likely to be put in place in an acceptable period of time; and
why the land should be disposed of in order to enable it to be brought back into use.

Two types of organisation are covered by the reformed Request process:

Public sector bodies that are covered by an existing statutory process
They are listed in the latest version of, what is known as, Schedule 16.
A range of bodies that for legal reasons cannot be included in Schedule 16.
Instead the Department will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with organisations that allows their land to be treated in a similar manner.

If the evidence supports the Request being made, the Department's Secretary of State will:

under the statutory process, a Disposal Notice that requires the public body to dispose of the land
under the parallel process, a letter will be issued that recommends, but cannot require, that the organisation dispose of the land.

Disposal will normally (not automatically) mean that the land is sold at an open market. By doing this community groups or others may be able to acquire the land and bring it back into a beneficial use.

The Request process is not intended to be a way of by-passing other democratic processes such as:

plan making
application assessment
transport scheme assessment etc.

However it may be used to hold to account organisations who do not use, underuse or lack any plans for, their land or property.

The Government is taking action to ensure that all public landowners carefully, fully and continually review their land and property holdings (and include a retention policy)

Where this isn't done (or done properly) the public can use the Request process to alert the Secretary of State to what they believe is a potential problem and, where it is justified, for him to do something about it.

Key Publications

Further details about this process are available in The Public Request to Order Disposal Process: A simple explanation.

We have produced the Request form to make it easier for anyone who wants to exercise their Right to be provided with, and to provide, all the necessary information.

Relevant legislation/regulations

1980 Local Government Planning and Land Act Part X (external link)
Statutory Instrument 2011 No.1399 adds new public bodies to Schedule 16 that lists those to whom the Statutory Request process applies

Enquiries and further information

1. For queries or comments about the data or map please e-mail assetdata@communities.gsi.gov.uk.

2. For enquiries about the Request process, please e-mail: PROD@communities.gsi.gov.uk or

by post

Public Request to Order Disposal Team
Department for Communities and Local Government
Eland House
Bressenden Place
London
SW1E 5DU

3. For enquiries about Request cases, please e-mail: NPCU@communities.gsi.gov.uk or

by post

The National Planning Casework Team
5 St Philip's Place
Colmore Row
Birmingham
B3 2PW