Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much land Network Rail disposed of between January 2017 and December 2020; and how much revenue was generated from those land sales.

Network Rail joined the cross-Government Public Sector Land for Housing Programme in April 2015 after it became a public sector body in 2014. Due to the complexities in how disposals are scored, it is difficult to provide the information over the time period you have requested. We can, however, readily provide information over four financial years – 2016/17 to 2019/20. Over this period, Network Rail has contracted to sell land capable of accommodating 8,180 homes and has generated a gross value of £237m. As well as these ‘business as usual’ disposals, Network Rail has also disposed of a long term interest in the majority of its Arches portfolio raising in excess £1.3bn in receipts from the disposal of a 250 year lease in over 5,000 tenanted spaces around the country in February 2019. The revenue made from these disposals forms part of the income which is reinvested in the railways.