Help to breathe new life into housing developments
23 Apr 2014 12:56 PM
New funding will help local areas unlock
locally-led housing developments and accelerate local
growth.
From today (23 April 2014) local leaders can bid for a
share of £50 million to invest in infrastructure that supports new
homes. A prospectus published by the government explains how to take advantage
of this opportunity and apply for support.
The
investment will be made available in 2015 to 2016 through the Local Growth
Fund to unlock locally-led housing developments of between 250 and
1,499 units which are struggling to move forward.
This is on top of a further £1
billion fund, available as loans to developers to get their large-scale
housing developments off the ground.
And
it comes alongside wider plans to regenerate some of the country’s most
run-down estates, delivering thousands of new homes in central London in the
process.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles
said:
We’ve delivered 420,000 new homes since 2010 -
including 170,000 new affordable homes. I’m determined we go even
further.
Today’s multi-million pound package will help get
workers back onto locally-led housing developments that had been stalled with
the end of the unsustainable housing boom in 2008, and deliver the homes and
local growth communities want to see.
But
I also don’t want those stuck on rundown estates to be forgotten.
That’s why we’re also investing a further £150 million to
breathe new life into those areas, and deliver homes that residents can be
proud of for years to come.
Housing Minister Kris Hopkins said:
We’re doing all we can to get the country
building, and provide developers with a chance to get on site and start
building local housing schemes that are vital for supporting local economic
growth.
Today’s £50 million fund will help deliver
the infrastructure local communities need to support new homes, and comes on
top of the £1 billion we’re making available to unlock large-scale
sites that stalled at the end of the unsustainable housing
boom.
This substantial investment will lead to thousands of
new homes across the country, and deliver new career opportunities in the
growing construction industry.
Using local knowledge to build more
homes
Last year the government committed to work with Local
Enterprise Partnerships to agree local Growth Deals and introduced the Local
Growth Fund to provide the levers to do this.
Local leaders will be able to use their knowledge,
creativity and ambition to identify local priorities, and provide investment
for infrastructure that will help drive forward these housing schemes and
support local economic growth.
The
£50 million funding will be provided using the successful model already
established for the Large Sites
Infrastructure Programme , which last week (14 April 2014) invited
bids for £1 billion of investment and a package of support to unlock
local housing schemes of over 1,500 homes.
Overall the construction of up to 250,000 new homes
between 2015 and 2020 will be supported. This builds on the success of the
current Local
Infrastructure Fund which, alongside brokerage support, is already
accelerating development of almost 80,000 homes in areas such as Cranbrook in
Devon, and Wokingham in Berkshire.
The
£1 billion fund will help deliver locally-led developments in communities
that want more growth and jobs in their area, and will assist those areas with
ideas for a new generation of garden cities.
These larger settlements are characterised by designs
that keep long-term local needs in mind, include good transport connections and
use previously developed brownfield land wherever possible.
Delivering more homes in London
Today (23 April 2014), ministers also outlined how they
plan to use £150 million set aside in this year’s
Budget to kick-start and accelerate the regeneration of some of
London’s most deprived housing estates.
Despite record numbers of people living in the capital
by 2021, the inner boroughs will still contain 1.7 million fewer people than
they did in 1939.
Initial Savills
research indicates that rediscovering just half of this former housing
capacity would supply the whole of London’s projected housing needs for
the next 17 years.
Government plans include rebuilding these estates to
deliver more homes and commercial space on the same amount of land. The homes
would be a combination of 5 to 6 storey homes and blocks of
flats.
And
later this year, a comprehensive study will consider the best way to get
started, while fully involving local communities in the design and planning
process, and identifying the barriers that may need to be
overcome.
This approach can also increase the value of the land,
attracting more private investment which, over 10 years, could lead to several
hundred thousand new homes in London.
Further Information
The Local Growth Fund (Housing Infrastructure) prospectus is
published today (23 April 2014).
See
details of funding available through the Large Sites
Infrastructure Programme to unlock large-scale sites.