There is "a long way to go" to ensure that a cross-government push to sell off public land for the building of new homes meets its target, according to MPs on the Public Accounts Committee.
Launched in May 2015, the programme – led by the Department for Communities and Local Government – aims to free up enough land for some 160,000 new homes to be built.
But an earlier report by the PAC was sharply critical of the scheme, saying DCLG could not show whether the programme was helping to alleviate the UK's housing shortage because it was not collecting information on the actual number of houses built or under construction.
NAO: Government does not know how many homes built on land released by departments
New-look public accounts committee takes tough line with DCLG's Melanie Dawes over land sell-off plan
The committee criticised the government for failing to collect the "basic information necessary to oversee the programme effectively", and said DCLG was only measuring "potential" capacity for new homes on sold-off land.
PAC has now taken a fresh look at the programme, gathering evidence from the National Audit Office spending watchdog, DCLG, the Homes and Communities Agency and three other Whitehall departments who are big contributors to the programme -- the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Transport and the Department of Health.
The new report paints a mixed picture of the programme's success so far, saying that progress against targets has "varied widely between departments".
While the DCLG itself has disposed of 12% of its target land, freeing up capacity for 4,326 homes, the Ministry of Defence has sold off land with the potential for just 856 homes, 1.5% of its target of contributing land with the capacity for 55,000 homes.
Meanwhile, the DfT has contributed just 0.2% -- 71 out of its promised 38,000 by the end of the decade.
The MPs say departments have made progress since last year's critical report, including putting in place more robust guidance and monitoring arrangements for the programme and clarifying accountability.
"We are also pleased that the department has now agreed to monitor the number of homes actually built; the programme is an important part of addressing the current housing shortage and the taxpayer has a right to know how many homes are built as a result of it," the committee adds.
But it says there remains "a long way to go to ensure that departments release enough land" by 2020 for the building of 160,000 new homes.
Departments have, it says, "made a slow start in releasing land", meaning the success of the programme "will depend on accelerating land sales significantly in the remaining years to 2020".
"For many of the sites identified for future sale there are a number of risks still to be addressed and it is far from certain that they will actually be made available for new homes, or when, and there is no contingency in the programme," the committee adds.
"The Department for Communities and Local Government also needs to firm up the detail of its monitoring and reporting processes; to make all details of the programme public so that roles, responsibilities and accountabilities are clear and transparent thereby providing assurance to taxpayers that they will see the benefits of this programme."
Speaking during PAC's inquiry, DfT permanent secretary Philip Rutnam said his department was now "much happier with the governance of the programme", saying that "very significant steps" had been taken to establish "a more rigorous, consistent, transparent and clearer set of arrangements" for running the scheme.
DCLG perm sec Melanie Dawes meanwhile said ministers had asked her department to monitor the building of homes "right through the planning system on all our sites" and promised to publish regular progress updates.
A spokesperson for the DCLG said: "Previous governments hoarded swathes of public land, blocking vital housing sites from being built and costing taxpayers a fortune in upkeep costs."
They added: "We are also taking direct action, by using surplus public land and £2bn of investment to accelerate delivery of thousands of new homes during this parliament."