A government programme designed to see surplus public land sold to provide new homes has fallen 100,000 houses short of its target, according to an official assessment.

A summary report of the 2015-20 Public Land for Housing Programme set up by former chancellor George Osborne in the wake of David Cameron’s 2015 election victory, found that it had got just 38% of the way to reaching its target of providing 161,000 plots from government departments.

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