The Government announced that councils will get over £100 million to help maintain building desperately needed family and first-time buyer homes.
The 2008-09 Housing and Planning Delivery Grant will provide, for the first time, additional direct funding top-up for councils to ensure that new homes are built where families need them.
Many councils are in a position to deliver quality homes quickly. Given the current economic climate, actions are needed to ensure ongoing flexibility and a continued ability to respond to needs. It is hoped that identifying land for homes will give the house building industry greater certainty around development proposals.
This new incentive aims to ensure that councils are able to act now. Those rewarded Councils can decide locally how best to spend this extra funding. In order to be eligible, local authorities must show progress on:
The allocations published show the breakdown between planning and housing elements and the amount of grant awarded under each category
For the first time in the Housing Corporation's history, a social housing funding agreement has been signed between an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) and the Corporation. Stockport Homes has received £1.02 million from the Corporation to fund 17 new homes.
The news follows the announcement lasts year that ALMOs were, for the first time, able to bid for funds from the Corporation's £8.4 billion investment programme for 2008-11.
Work started on the Stockport scheme during November and is due for completion in November 2009.
The signing is one of a further 6 partners added to the Corporation's list of delivery partners who are now able to proceed with delivering affordable homes. The Corporation has signed over £25 million in funding agreements with private sector and other new partners to deliver over 600 homes, as part of the Corporation's £8.4 billion 2008-11 investment programme.
