The Government’s £866m investment in local housing projects will help up to 200,000 new homes get off the ground.
Housing Secretary Sajid Javid and Chancellor Philip Hammond have announced that 133 council-led projects across the country will receive funding to support local work that will make housing developments viable and get much-needed homes built faster. With the government committed to building 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s, this first wave of funding from the £5bn Housing Infrastructure Fund is part of a comprehensive programme to fix the broken housing market.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, said: “Today marks the first step of the multi-billion pound investment we announced at the Budget to help build the homes our country needs. This fund finances vital infrastructure such as roads, schools and bridges, which will kick-start housing development in some of Britain’s highest-demand areas.
“This support will help us meet our ambitious plan of building 300,000 new homes each year and ensure we have enough housing in areas which need it most.”
Housing Secretary Sajid Javid added: “Our priority is building the homes this country desperately needs. This first wave of investment totalling £866m will help get up to 200,000 homes off the ground, making a huge difference to communities across the country.
“This is just one of the many ways this government is taking action to get Britain building homes again.”
Projects that will receive funding include £10m for the construction of a bypass in Hampshire to help unlock the delivery of 1,000 new homes; £10m for highway infrastructure at the Ashton Green Housing site in Leicester; £3.6m for drainage works, new roads and footpaths in South-east Sheffield; and £6.5m to help build a new primary school in North Devon and unlock 750 new homes.
The £5 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund is a government capital grant programme to help unlock new homes in areas with the greatest housing demand. Funding is awarded to local authorities on a competitive basis. The fund is divided into 2 streams: a Marginal Viability Fund — available to all single and lower tier local authorities in England — to provide a piece of infrastructure funding to get additional sites allocated or existing sites unblocked quickly, and a Forward Fund — available to the uppermost tier of local authorities in England — for a small number of strategic and high-impact infrastructure projects.
