Bedfordshire Pilgrims Housing Association (bpha)
Work will start at the landmark Trumpington Meadows development in Cambridge, due to an innovative agreement between the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and delivery partner bpha.
The agreement will deliver 40% of the total homes for the site as affordable housing, funded by a grant of £9,898,640 from the HCA.
Following signing of the planning permission in September 2009, the HCA and bpha have agreed the final grant for the affordable homes. Through an innovative approach, the HCA will release funding at higher levels in earlier phases of the project, easing the financing of the scheme, the first tranche of which has now been paid out.
The affordable homes will be a mix of social rented and shared ownership and will meet the Code for Sustainable Homes level 4. They will be Lifetime Home compliant and Gold Award standard is being sought through CABEs Building for Life programme.
Trumpington Meadows is the first strategic site to move forward as part of the Cambridge Challenge - a pilot to deliver 3,300 affordable homes in Cambridgeshire. This grant, along with help from Cambridgeshire Horizons Growth Area Fund, enable the wider development of the site which is forecast to deliver approximately 1200 homes in total plus community facilities including a school.
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Circle Anglia
Circle Anglia has secured planning permission and funding for Phase Two of the £80m regeneration of Orchard Village in the London Borough of Havering, which is managed by Old Ford Housing Association.
The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has approved nearly £15 million grant support.
Phase Two of the regeneration will deliver 178 new affordable homes for residents. Circle Anglia, is working with its contractor partners Willmott Dixon Housing and PRP Architects on the detailed designs of the properties.
Phase Two demolition and building is planned to begin early in 2011.
Housing Minister John Healey named the first three sites which mark the start of a new deal in housebuilding, with the first Government-owned land being made available under the Public Land Initiative for much-needed new homes.
Subject to planning permission, the three schemes will deliver nearly 500 new homes - many of which will be made available for affordable rent or sale. The Public Land Initiative is expected to deliver up to 1,250 homes overall.
Under the new deal, Government provides the public land but takes out the upfront costs and risks involved in site purchase and preparation as contractors pay for the land only once the completed homes are sold.
A panel of approved partners have been selected, reducing the contract bidding and procurement costs for public agencies that want to build homes this way. But in exchange for this reduced risk, developers take a smaller profit.
The first three sites to be made available under the Public Land Initiative will be:
The Government confirmed nearly £500 million funding to build around 8,000 affordable homes across the country. This takes total Government funding for housebuilding to £3.5 billion since June.
Every region of the country is benefiting from this extra cash to build much-needed affordable homes for sale and rent. Over 3,000 of these new homes are expected to be available through the HomeBuy schemes, offering first time buyers help onto the property ladder. And nearly 5,000 homes will be available for affordable rent through housing associations.
Schemes receiving this additional funding include:
