MoD sells land at Southwick Park for housing

The site is one of 13 being sold. D-Day was planned from Southwick House.

The sites are expected to provide land for up to 17,000 new homes, contributing to the government’s target of building 160,000 new homes by 2020.

All of the money generated from land sales will be invested back into meeting the needs of the Armed Forces.

Today’s announcement – which is the third tranche of sites to be released – means the MoD has now freed up enough brownfield and surplus public sector land for up to 39,000 new homes, expected to generate around £930 million.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: ‘We are getting rid of land that we don’t need to build homes that we do, generating hundreds of millions of pounds in the process.

‘Our commitment to protect and increase the budget for our armed forces means that every penny of that will be reinvested into defence, helping to keep Britain safe.’

The sales aim to reduce the size of the MoD estate which totals just under half a million hectares by selling off sites for which there is no longer a long-term defence requirement.

The MOD expects to make further announcements as part of the strategy later in 2016.