Sixty-seven NHS sites were transferred to English Partnerships. The transfer marked the first stage of a Government proposal to build 15,000 new homes on land previously owned by the NHS.
The transfer is part of a strategy initiated by English Partnerships on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, which aims to advise on ways of developing closer working relations in the public sector, with an objective of making better use of assets.
A total of 96 NHS sites are expected to be transferred to English Partnerships. Of the target of 15,000 new homes, about one third would be available for affordable housing programmes.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) was reportedly in discussions with the Council of Mortgage Lenders over its proposals to extend the Homebuy scheme and introduce a simplified shared ownership scheme.
The objective of extending the eligibility for the scheme above the original estimate of 80,000 households is top of the agenda, for discussion. This was evident in Chancellor Gordon Brown's pledge to increase the number of homeowners by one million by the year 2010.
The Homebuy scheme is aimed at first time buyers, to assist eligible people to buy a home on the open market who could not otherwise afford to do so. The ODPM aims to have the new scheme up and running from April 2006.