By Almost £250 million of housing deals have been agreed to deliver nearly 25,000 new homes across England, it has been announced by, James Brokenshire, housing and communities minister.
The package includes a number of schemes aimed at delivering new homes in England as part of the department’s drive to make the housing market work for everyone and deliver much-needed homes across the country, according to the recent press release from the government.
Infrastructure development
An investment of £157 million will be made by the government in infrastructure, such as roads and natural green spaces, alongside developments in Cumbria and Devon. This will be invested under the Housing Infrastructure Fund in schemes in these two counties.
The money will be used to pay for a new motorway between south Carlisle and the M6, which is designed to unlock up to 10,000 new homes at St Cuthbert’s Garden Village.
Meanwhile, £55 million will be spent on road improvements and other infrastructure in Devon so that 2,500 homes can be built to the south west of Exeter.
£78 million Homes England funding for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
More than 1,500 new homes located in two new neighbourhoods will be built in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, following a £78 million loan from Homes England.
This loan is part of the government’s £4.5 billion Home Building Fund, which provides development and infrastructure finance to home builders.
It is anticipated that the first phase of the development will be completed in summer 2021, with work at East Wick and Sweetwater being fully completed by 2028.
Work has already begun on phase one of the site, which will include 130 new affordable homes and 105 for private rental, as well as more than 33,000 square feet of business and creative space.
Modern homes with the Accelerated Construction Programme
Up to 650 new homes will be built on three sites in Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, Hertfordshire, using Modern Methods of Construction designed to raise buildings more quickly than traditional methods.
An investment of £10.6 million of funding from Homes England will be made towards this scheme, which is the first to benefit from the government’s £450 million Accelerated Construction Programme.
Work is due to start on the first site in Hatfield town centre in June.
Ministry of defence housing agreement
Homes England have agreed a partnership with the Defence Infrastructure Organisation to develop land being released by the Ministry of Defence. There is also potential for more surplus Army land to be used in the future for similar projects.
As it stands, 10,000 homes will be built on 7 different sites including:
- Claro and Deverell Barracks in Ripon, North Yorkshire
- RAF Henlow in Bedfordshire
- MOD Site 4 in Stafford
- MDPGA Wethersfield in Braintree, Essex
- Swynnerton Training Camp in Stone, Staffordshire
- Prince William of Gloucester Barracks in Grantham, Lincolnshire
- Chetwynd Barracks in Chilwell, Nottinghamshire
Tobias Ellwood, minister for defence, people and veterans, said: “As we work to make our military bases more modern and efficient, it’s important that former MOD land is used in a way which serves local residents and the economy.
“This new partnership underlines our commitment to helping house building in this country and will provide good value for money to taxpayers.”
Invoking the spirit of Britain’s post-war push to build
These deals are all part of the government’s efforts to improve the housing market and cater to more of the national population with much-needed housing options.
James Brokenshire, housing and communities minister, said: “We delivered 222,000 homes last year which is the highest number in a decade, but we must keep upping our game.
“We are invoking the spirit of Britain’s post-war push to build as we strive to hit our target of 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s, for the first time since the days of Harold Macmillan.
“By investing in infrastructure, freeing up public sector land and offering targeted loans we are making the housing market work.”
He finished by saying that the recent deals struck will help the government to build almost 25,000 homes, which is a symbolic step towards the national target of building more homes across the country.
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