Sheffield to take part in brownfield pilot
The Small Sites Aggregator scheme, launched by the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government, will aim to group together smaller, more challenging council-owned sites to speed up their development and address the need for social housing.
Building on a model developed by Lloyds Banking Group’s Social Housing Initiative, the scheme will focus on plots of land that could deliver from five to 15 houses and will look to enable economies of scale in their development.
The pilot is being launched in Sheffield, Bristol, and Lewisham in London, with the councils working alongside the MHCLG, developers, and investors, and is part of the government’s recent bundle of measures to support SME builders.
The scheme hopes to encourage private funding into the development of the small sites, to deliver homes for social rent.
Sheffield will take part this financial year and FY2026/27, starting with due diligence and a consultation process to determine what plots should be included.
Kate Martin, executive director – city futures at Sheffield City Council said: “We were delighted to have the opportunity to work with MHCLG on this exciting pilot scheme to accelerate the development of these smaller plots of land to meet our city’s housing demand.
“We already have our own Small Sites Programme that aims to increase housing supply of all tenures on small parcels of underutilised housing revenue account land.
“But small sites can be challenging to develop, with small build numbers making viability often an issue.
“This pilot scheme will help us to accelerate and develop more of these sites right across the city.
Chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, Charlie Nunn said: “We strongly welcome the government’s announcement that it will pilot the Small Sites Aggregator in Bristol, Sheffield, and Lewisham.
“Through the Social Housing Initiative, we’re proud to have helped ignite this innovation in housing development and finance – unlocking the small, brownfield sites in our communities which are lying empty yet have immense potential to provide good quality homes in our towns and cities.
“This exciting partnership between the public and private sectors will increase investment at pace into the new, genuinely affordable homes that are needed across the UK.”
A statement from MHCLG said: “The Small Sites Aggregator pilot will unlock sites that would otherwise not have been developed, while attracting private investment to build new social rent homes.”