The minister said the fund is to help unlock stalled sites across the country and he called on councils and developers with large scale sites to come forward and tap into the government help available to get workers on sites and get building.
The £225 million pot is part of the wider £474 million Local Infrastructure Fund, designed to stimulate economic development and get sites moving.
Prisk announced a £24.7 million loan to Reading University to help unlock a large scale site in Wokingham near Reading for 2,500 new homes, two primary schools, a neighbourhood centre, shops, park and ride facilities and a new specialist Science and Research Park. The investment will be used to build a new access road and bridge to link the new development to Wokingham town centre.
Wokingham is the fourth large scale site that the government has helped to accelerate since August last year. The other are Eastern Quarry in Kent for 22,000 homes, Cranbrook near Exeter which received £20 million to deliver 1,500 jobs, new rail links to London and 6,300 homes, and Fairfield in Milton Keynes with 6,000 homes.
‘The £25 million investment in the future of Wokingham will help tackle the transport troubles that are stopping the building of 2,500 homes. But with dozens of similar stalled sites across the country, I’m determined to do more,’ said Prisk.
‘That’s why I’m calling on councils and developers with large scale, locally supported stalled developments to come forward and make the most of the government help available to get builders back to work and the homes we need built,’ he explained.
Colin Molton, Homes and Communities Agency executive director for the South and South West, said that Wokingham needs more homes to support the growth planned for the Borough, but this can’t happen without the investment in the Eastern Relief Road that the minister has announced.
‘This will play a vital part in supporting growth in a way that helps develop sustainable communities by providing a better road network and hundreds of new jobs and 2,500 new homes to Wokingham. We have worked hard to bring this complex agreement together in a very tight timeframe. Now the hard work really starts and we will be focused on ensuring that everything is in place so that work on building the new road can begin soon,’ he explained.
Prisk also pointed out that the fund adds to a wide range of measures introduced since 2010 to get Britain building, help aspiring home owners onto the property ladder and make full use of the country’s housing stock.
These include: £19.5 billion public and private investment is track to deliver 170,000 affordable homes by 2015, a £10 billion commitment to back house builders’ loans to deliver new homes for rent, £1.8 billion investment in infrastructure, through the Growing Places Fund, the Local Infrastructure Fund and Get Britain Building, some 16,000 empty homes set to come back into use through the Empty Homes Fund, and a wide range of home ownership schemes helping thousands of people onto the housing ladder.
On top of this the £50 billion Funding for Lending Scheme has increasing mortgage availability across the country.
