The Liberal Democrats plan to free up prime sites for homes by selling off inner-city prisons, it was revealed at their party conference in Bournemouth on Wednesday.

A Lib Dem plan to cut reoffending by investing in education and training in prisons would be funded by the sale of the valuable sites, which would then be used for housing.

New prisons would be built on less costly land outside city centres.

But the proposals – part of the party’s “tough liberalism” policy – have been given a cool reception.

John Perry, policy adviser at Chartered Institute of Housing, said: “We always welcome proposals for new houses, but the Home Office would not be able to sell at site value if any of the homes were going to be offered as affordable homes, which means they wouldn’t make the maximum amount of money. The buildings will also be expensive to convert.”

Tim Colbourne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs adviser, named Brixton, Wandsworth and Pentonville prisons in London as potential candidates for the scheme.

He said: “We are currently considering between 30 and 40 sites around the country. But a lot of the buildings are mid-19th-century listed buildings, so we’d have to convert them as opposed to knocking them down and building from new.”

Colbourne said the buildings would be re-used for homes because this would generate the most money, but added that he wanted to see more affordable housing.

Source

Housing Today