UK govt announces shortlist for major housing development infrastructure

The first wave of projects to benefit from a UK government £1 billion scheme to provide new homes has been announced with 36 large projects set to get a share.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said the move will unlock or accelerate the provision of over 200,000 new homes across the country.

Some £850 million will be released as part of a five year £1 billion programme and five projects will be chosen from a shortlist of 36. The funding will be used to build the infrastructure needed to provide schemes of at least 1,500 homes.

The money will go towards the building of road improvement, schools and parks to support the extra homes being planned and the shortlisted projects will now go through a final rigorous due diligence process before receiving the funding.

Sites include the continued development of the Greenwich Peninsula in South East London, which will help provide nearly 10,000 new homes, while funding is also expected to go to Ebbsfleet Eastern Quarry, to help provide 3,500 homes.

‘Residential construction is now at its highest level since 2007 and continuing to rise, and 216,000 new homes were given planning permission last year. We are supporting locally led development, and this £1 billion programme will help unlock or accelerate over 200,000 new homes across the country,’ said Pickles.

‘This is part of our wider package of housing programmes to support home ownership, increase investment in the private rented sector and further increase house building,’ he added.

Pickles explained that the funding will be available between 2015 and 2020 and will be in the form of a long term loan, with interest, ensuring a fair rate of return for taxpayers.

As well as the £1 billion loan funding, the large sites infrastructure programme also includes £12.5 million capacity funding and expert planning and technical support for councils dealing with large scale sites, as well as brokerage support from central government to unblock obstacles to development.

The shortlisted projects are in Greenwich, east London, Rugby, Monkton Heathfield just outside Taunton, Doncaster, Bishop Stortford, New Lubbesthorpe in Leicester, North Wellingborough, Wokingham, Truro, Ashford, Northampton, Telford, Exeter, East Kettering, Gloucester, Hinckley, Branston Locks in East Staffordshire, the Festival Gardens site in Liverpool, Bath, Colchester, Weston Airfield in North Somerset, Ebbsfleet Valley, Daventry, North West Bicester, Fareham, Scarborough, Thetford North, Ealing, Scunthorpe, Dover, Chelmsford, Corby, Alphington near Exeter, Wood Wharf in London and West Witney.

The £1 billion large sites infrastructure fund is one part of a wider package of support to get large scale housing developments back on track. Other support includes a £12.5 million local capacity fund to enable councils to put in place the skills and resources to move major schemes forward through the planning process.

The government has already helped unlock a range of large scale sites across the country. These include Sherford near Plymouth, where £32 million government investment is being put towards the road improvements needed to support over 5,000 new homes, schools, shops and communities facilities.

In Cranbrook near Exeter a £20 million injection of funding is enabling the provision of 6,300 new homes and a new railway station and in East Kettering, Northamptonshire, a £14 million of government investment is funding major infrastructure to unlock phase One of a major 5,500 home urban extension.