THIS PETITION IS NOW CLOSED - WE'VE HANDED IT IN TO MICHAEL GOVE!
Target: Michael Gove MP, the Secretary of State for Housing
Petition ask: Scrap ‘hope value’ because it makes councils pay so much for land they can’t build social housing
Right now, land is so expensive that it’s very hard for anyone to build genuinely affordable, desperately needed social homes. One of the reasons land is so expensive for councils is because of a bizarre old rule called 'hope value'.
Councils can make landowners sell their land to build much needed homes for our communities - but they are then forced by law to pay hope value.
Hope value is calculated by the amount the land could be worth if the land was sold to build luxury private homes. Because hope value is so expensive, many landowners will refuse the council's initial offer, because they know that the council has no power to buy the land at a lower price.
If we got rid of hope value, landowners would be more likely to accept a fairer price for land - and we could build many more social homes.
The Levelling Up Bill was published in May, and in the notes to this Bill the government said they ‘intend to introduce a measure that reforms land compensation’. But we need them to prioritise this – and that’s where you come in.
Help us call on Government to use the Levelling Up Bill to scrap this unfair and outdated hope value rule and #BuildSocialHousing.