Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to land sold by Network Rail with outline planning consent between May 2010 and April 2021, how many new housing units were included in those consent broken down by the number of (a) affordable houses and (b) homes available for social rent.

Network Rail joined the cross-Government Public Sector Land for Housing Programme in April 2015 after it became a public sector body in 2014. Between April 2015 and March 2020, Network Rail disposed land for 9282 housing units. Although the Public Sector Land Programme was paused in April last year due to the Covid pandemic, Network Rail has continued to work to release any surplus land towards housing. In the last year, it has released land for a further 537 units taking the total to over 9819 housing units since 2015. In addition to this, Network Rail has unlocked tens of thousands of housing units by releasing key strips of land or granting rights over land through shared value.

Network Rail do not have a break-down of affordable homes or homes for social rent – this information is not always available at the point of sale.