Land Commission launched to help unlock undeveloped land
AN independent body has been created to help unlock “hundreds of hectares of undeveloped land” across the region.
The West Midlands Land Commission has been set up to provide advice and recommendations to the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), which has a strategic economic plan with a target of attracting an extra 20,000 businesses to the region by 2030 along with 500,000 additional jobs.
An improved and balanced supply of land would also help the WMCA to meet its goals for housing.
The Commission’s chairman is Paul Marcuse, who is currently chairman of the management board of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and was previously group managing director of UBS and hief executive of AXA Real Estate Investment Managers.
He is joined by Bill Oliver, the retiring chief executive of St Modwen Properties, Jerome Frost, who leads Arup’s UK and EMEA consulting business, Bruce Mann, the executive director of the Cabinet Office’s Government Property Unit and economist Bridget Rosewell.
Mr Marcuse said: “WMLC is being established at a time of unprecedented opportunity for the region.
“A combination of the recent establishment of the WMCA and its devolution deal with Government and the very significant infrastructure investment being made in the region provides a singular opportunity to review the wealth of complex issues affecting the supply of land.”
The commission is seeking evidence on a number of lines of enquiry which were designed to consider the challenges in developing land, identifying blockages in the system and to recommend measures which could be implemented to secure a sufficient supply of land for development.
The launch of the Commission is seen as a key element of the combined authority’s devolution deal with Government.
That deal, which saw the first £36.5m annual payment given to the combined authority only last month, will drive an £8bn investment package aimed at improving productivity and skills, delivering transport infrastructure and homes and increasing the general prosperity of the region’s 4m people.
