A process known as the Public Request to Order Disposal of land (PROD) has existed for some time under Part X of the Local Government Planning and Land Act 1980. It is currently referred to in Government publications as the Community Right to Reclaim Land. It allows anyone to request that land owned by a public body is put up for sale on the open market. The statutory request procedure applies to public bodies identified in Schedule 16 of the 1980 Act. Under Part X of the Act, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has powers to direct those bodies to dispose of land or property. Schedule 16 was amended in England by The Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 (Amendment of Schedule 16) (England) Order 2011.
The aim of the scheme is to make it easier to bring land back into use if it is owned by local authorities or other public bodies (including, for example, the Environment Agency, the BBC or the British Transport Police). A request is made to the DCLG stating why it is considered that: (a) the land described in the request is under-used or vacant; (b) there are no suitable, consulted upon and publicly tested plans in place or likely to be put in place in an acceptable period of time for the land; and (c) the land should be disposed of in order to enable it to be brought back into use. If the Secretary of State decides the land is vacant and underused and that the body has no plans to bring it into use, they will issue a disposal notice that requires the public body to dispose of the land – usually on the open market, so that community groups or others may be able to acquire the land.
The Community Right to Reclaim Land is now being extended, by introducing a public Right to Contest, so that land owned by a central government department or one of its arms’ length bodies can be brought back into use. The Right to Contest allows the public to challenge central government to release land for better economic use. Unlike the Community Right to Reclaim Land, which deals with unused or underused land, the Right to Contest can be used to argue that land currently in use could be put to a better economic purpose (e.g. for housing or to help businesses develop or expand) where operations on the land could be moved to a different location.
The Right to Contest came into force on 8 January 2014.