Sheffield is set to be part of a government-led partnership with Bristol City Council and the London Borough of Lewisham looking to accelerate the development of small plots of brownfield land for housing.
The Small Sites Aggregator scheme will see Sheffield City Council work alongside the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), developers and private sector funders.
It will look at better accessing smaller plots of brownfield land which are usually challenging to develop. This will help meet housing demand nationwide.
The scheme looks to support the delivery of housing on Council-owned small sites in a number of ways:
- Bringing together a pipeline of small sites which will enable economies of scale in development
- Enabling private funding investment into the programme to develop the small sites
- Providing Government financial and expert support to enable Councils to get sites ready for development
The overall aim is to deliver new social rent homes and help address temporary accommodation challenges currently faced by Local Authorities nationwide.
Sheffield City Council will form one of the pilot areas for the scheme during this financial year, as well as 2026/2027.
There are a number of potential sites for such development across Sheffield, ranging from less than five, up to 15 potential homes on each one. Due diligence will now take place alongside the partnership and then a consultation process to decide on viability for inclusion.
Kate Martin, executive director – City Futures at Sheffield City Council, said: “We were delighted to have the opportunity to work with MHCLG on this exciting pilot scheme to accelerate the development of these smaller plots of land to meet our city’s housing demand.
“We already have our own Small Sites Programme that aims to increase housing supply of all tenures on small parcels of underutilised Housing Revenue Account (HRA) land. But small sites can be challenging to develop, with small build numbers making viability often an issue. This pilot scheme will help us to accelerate and develop more of these sites right across the city.”
