Another £51 million has been released by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) in the second wave of schemes to be unlocked through round one of the Kickstart Programme. The announcement was made by Housing Minister, John Healey, who revealed that a further 2,000 new homes will be built on sites that had previously stalled due to the economic downturn.
This second wave of funding will allow work to continue at 27 housing schemes across the country. This is in addition to more than £10.2 million Kickstart money awarded by the HCA in September, to unlock almost 750 affordable and market sale homes, across 10 schemes. The total number of homes released through Kickstart is now 2,750 across 37 schemes, with an investment of over £60 million.
Also announced by the Housing Minister was an update on the HCA's National Affordable Housing Programme, revealing that in September, almost £400 million was allocated to deliver around 6,000 affordable homes across the country. This includes £32 million in the South West, over £13 million in the North West and funding for more than two thousand new affordable homes in London.
The Public Land Initiative (PLI), established as part of the Prime Minister's Housing Pledge, was also mentioned in a speech by the Housing Minister. Set up in June to build 1,250 new homes, including around 500 affordable homes, on a small number of sites owned by the HCA, PLI will see the first housebuilders on site by April next year and the first 50 homes completed by 2010/2011.