Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what plans his Department has to increase the sale of public land surplus to the Government's requirements.

Caroline Nokes, Minister for Government Resilience and Efficiency: The Government Property Unit in Cabinet Office is responsible for overseeing implementation of the Government Estate Strategy. This means working with Government Departments to ensure the estate is efficient and fit-for-purpose to support operations now and in the future.

The GPU commissions Departments to produce annual Strategic Asset Management Plans, setting out how they plan to implement the Government Estate Strategy within their property portfolio.

Government is working towards our commitment to raise £5 billion from releasing surplus land in 2015 - 2020. In doing so, our ambition is to also unlock land with capacity for 160,000 new homes.

We are also supporting collaboration across the public sector to make better use of our collective estate. Our successful partnership with the Local Government Association to deliver the One Public Estate programme aims to support 95% of councils in England by 2018. Through joint working across central and local Government and the wider public sector we are delivering more integrated public services, local growth (homes and jobs) and efficiencies. We are currently in the process of further expanding the One Public Estate programme. In addition to new and existing partnerships applying for funding and support to deliver collaborative schemes, we have partnered with the Department for Communities and Local Government to include a £45 million capital Local Authority Land Release Fund. This combination of One Public Estate and DCLG funding and support will be a significant boost to unlocking public land for new homes. The current partnerships are expected to release land to deliver 25,000 housing units by 2020.

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