Press release: £55million Homes England grant funding to boost development of 4,000 homes

  • £55 million grant funding has been agreed with Homes England to deliver 4,000 new homes
  • The deal will support 12 local authorities to accelerate housing across England on sites in their ownership
  • Use of modern methods of construction will contribute to the increase in build pace by an average of 40 percent
  • The first of the developments will start on site later this year

Homes England has agreed funding deals with 12 local authorities to deliver 4,000 homes across England. The funding totalling £55million has been awarded through the Government’s £450 million Local Authority Accelerated Construction (LAAC) Programme and will support local authorities with a range of work required to prepare their sites for the development of new homes such as infrastructure enabling works, planning and technical expertise and site remediation.

The LAAC programme prioritises the use of modern methods of construction, which will increase the pace of delivery across the developments by an average of 40 percent.

The funding will be used to kick start the development of 4,000 new homes across England, including 1,400 at a 400 acre site at Horton Heath, Eastleigh. Eastleigh Borough Council purchased the site in 2018 and the development will benefit from £20.8million of LAAC funding to accelerate the delivery of a mix of one, two, three and four bedroom homes, including a minimum of 30 percent affordable housing.

Today’s announcement includes deals with local authorities from across England:

North:

City of York Council, Gateshead Council, Newcastle City Council, Pendle Borough Council

South:

Eastleigh Borough Council, Medway Council, Dorset Council

Midlands:

Leicestershire County Council, High Peak Borough Council, City of Lincoln Council

East:

Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk, South Norfolk Council

Minister of State for Housing, Kit Malthouse MP, said:

“We haven’t built enough homes in this country for far too long – and our accelerated construction programme is here to change that, and fast.

“This £55 million funding boost will help councils get 4,000 new homes built across the country using the latest modern methods that cut down on construction time.

“We must keep building more, better, faster to meet our ambition to building 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.”

Stephen Kinsella, Executive Director for Land at Homes England, said:

“This funding will enable local authorities to accelerate housing delivery by enabling them to prepare sites for development and bring forward the construction of new homes incorporating modern methods of construction.”

ENDS

For more information contact Kate Hall, Communications Officer at Homes England on 0115 852 6900 or email kate.hall@homesengland.gov.uk

Notes to editors:

Local authority Amount of funding Number of Homes
Eastleigh Borough Council £20,800,000 1,400
Gateshead Council £1,824,859 191
Newcastle City Council £2,397,918 171
City of York Council £1,466,800 162
Medway Council £732,134 115
Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk £1,065,548 82
High Peak Borough Council £467,688 83
Leicestershire County Council £13,247,311 1,083
Pendle Council £1,149,808 200
South Norfolk Council £7,803,000 350
Dorset Council £ 2,503,836 111
City of Lincoln Council £2,132,376 52