In an announcement by Grant Shapps, the government is now actively floating its plans to help communities acquire surplus publicly-owned land and buildings. The story can be found here. As a start, the HCA surplus property portfoliio has been published. Details from other public agencies will follow in due course.
We have proposed that the EDMO legislation is amended to allow EDMO action on publicly-owned dwellings, which iscurrently excluded by Sub-section 133(2)(b) of the Houisng Act 2004. We think there will be many circumstances where outright sale may not be appropriate eg where large-scale redevelopmnt is planned. In the meantime, though, homes might usefully be leaesd. Our consultation response on the changes to EDMOs already flagged this up - but we'll write separately to Mr. Shapps to make this particular point.