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New planning rules to free up unused public land

Wednesday, 2 February 2011 3:21 PM

Unused public land and buildings are set to be freed under new planning rules, allowing local communities to reclaim and develop them.

The new rights could see hundreds of acres of public sector space being used to create new homes, businesses and leisure facilities.

However, ministers have called for a long list of other public organisations, such as the BBC, to come under the same category.

This could mean that land no longer used by the corporation could be reclaimed by members of the public and developed to help local communities.

Housing minister Grant Shapps said that the new Community Right to Reclaim Land would help free up pieces of land that are at present off limits due to legal and administrative complexities.

"It's completely unacceptable that people have to walk past derelict land and buildings every day, in the knowledge that there's almost no prospect they will be brought back into use, and there's absolutely nothing they can do about it," he asserted.

Shapps went on to say that, for years, communities that have tried to improve their local area by developing disused properties have found themselves "bouncing off the walls of bureaucratic indifference".

"Their attempts to do something positive for their community [have been] thwarted by a system that has proved totally ineffective," he concluded.

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