08 – Public Sector Delivery & Intervention Portfolio (PSD) 🏛️

🎯 Objective

To restore public sector leadership in development by equipping local and regional authorities with tools to assemble land, directly deliver homes, and intervene where private actors delay, speculate, or fail to act. PSD ensures the state can lead or rescue development in the public interest — not just wait and hope.

🧩 Policy S1 – Public-Led Land Assembly Mechanism

What it does:
Empowers local planning authorities (LPAs) and combined authorities to:

  • Strategically assemble fragmented land parcels
  • Use soft compulsion (e.g. voluntary purchase backed by planning incentives)
  • Trigger Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) where needed

Land can then be transferred into public or community-led development vehicles.

Why it’s needed:
Delivery often stalls not because of policy, but because land is fragmented, unavailable, or hoarded. Public-led assembly cuts through this gridlock.

International Analogy:

  • Germany and the Netherlands give municipalities the legal and financial tools to assemble land for housing and infrastructure routinely.

🏗️ Policy S2 – Local Development Corporations (LDCs)

What it does:
Establishes mission-driven, public or public-private delivery bodies (LDCs) to lead major housing or regeneration schemes, including:

  • Public land transformation
  • Mixed-tenure delivery
  • Infrastructure-led masterplanning

LDCs may have statutory backing and operate with delivery mandates.

Why it’s needed:
Private-led delivery can be speculative, fragmented, or misaligned with local need. LDCs ensure delivery is led by public purpose, not just market cycles.

International Analogy:

  • Canary Wharf and London’s Olympic Park were delivered through LDCs.
  • France uses établissements publics fonciers as public land corporations for strategic delivery.

🛑 Policy S3 – Compulsory Purchase Activation Trigger

What it does:
Creates a statutory right for LPAs to initiate CPO proceedings if a developer:

  • Fails to commence delivery within a specified timeframe (e.g. 3 years post-permission)
  • Uses site holding purely as a speculative asset

This power may be coupled with reduced compensation if delay was unjustified.

Why it’s needed:
To give LPAs a credible enforcement option when land is granted permission but not brought forward — preventing long-term speculation and withholding.

International Analogy:

  • Scotland’s land reform framework includes CPO tools triggered by delay or non-use, particularly in rural or community-led contexts.

📘 Summary

The Public Sector Delivery & Intervention Portfolio (PSD) rebalances power in planning by ensuring the public sector is not just a referee, but a capable developer, enabler, and enforcer. Whether through land assembly, direct delivery, or compulsory purchase, PSD equips the state to intervene where private actors fail — ensuring that housing and regeneration do not stall for lack of will or coordination.