Today Housing Minister Gavin Barwell announced a fund to speed up housebuilding on large sites that will provide thousands of new homes where people want to live. Stonewater — a social housing provider that manages 30,000 homes across England and has a significant development programme in place to help address the rising demand for housing — sees the announcement as a real opportunity for councils and housing associations.
Nicholas Harris, chief executive designate at Stonewater, says: “We are encouraged by Housing Minister Gavin Barwell’s announcement today of an £18m ‘capacity fund’ to help local authorities tackle planning issues that hold up urgently needed homes from being built on public land.
“There is a real opportunity here for councils and housing associations to work together to ensure that these developments provide the right mix of affordable homes to meet local needs. This includes homes for low-cost, shared ownership and other tenures. We also hope that splitting up these large chunks of land into smaller development sites will open up the market to smaller, regional developers and their suppliers, creating local jobs for local people.”
