[KF] The Government have announced details of a £420 million fund to unlock stalled sites and get Britain building again in 2012. The Get Britain Building Fund will help get builders back on housing sites that have planning permission but have been shut down because of difficulties in accessing development finance.
Over the next two years, this £420 million fund is expected to unlock up to 16,000 homes on sites that are currently stalled, and help create up to 30,000 jobs in construction and related industries.
Developers will be able to apply for a share of the funding, whether as a loan at commercial rates, or as an equity investment (where the Government invests alongside the developer).
The amount individual developers receive from the fund will be no more than 50% of a project's total costs and all projects must restart on site by December next year.
All homes funded through Get Britain Building must be completed by December 2014. Therefore, developers applying for the funding must also have sites with outline planning permission, and the support of the local council.
Although all developers will be able to apply for funding, efforts will be made to make it accessible to small and medium-sized businesses, as they struggle most with accessing development finance. Developments put forward for funding can be as small as 25 new homes and the process has been streamlined to ensure that potential applicants are not put-off by onerous information requirements.
New Fund Aims to Re-launch Stalled Development Projects
Esh Group
With an awarded of £10.4 million, Esh Group became the first private developer to receive funding from the Affordable Homes Programme.
The grant awarded is in support of contracts valued at over £61 million to build 541 affordable homes in the North East and Cumbria.
Of the total number of units, 164 will be built in Cumbria and 377 units in the Northumberland, Tees Valley and Durham. It includes 44 units for The Cyrenians vulnerable persons' facility near to Durham.
The majority of the new homes will be made available as affordable rent with some for affordable home ownership, supported housing and, in some circumstances, social rent.
Esh Group's partners include Two Castles Housing Association, Livin (Sedgefield Borough Homes), Vela (Housing Hartlepool), Endeavour Housing and DAMHA (Durham Aged Miners Housing Association).
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Jessup
Staffordshire-based house builder Jessup is the first private sector developer in the Midlands to sign an affordable housing agreement with the Homes and Communities Agency.
Jessup have been allocated £3.6 million over the next three years to provide a variety of homes and tenures throughout the Midlands. They will work with registered providers, including housing hssociations, who will ultimately own the properties to be built.
The agreement, which is part of the HCA's Affordable Homes Programme, will support Jessup's plans to deliver 200 new homes.
__________Somer Housing Group More than 470 new affordable homes are to be delivered in Bath, Bristol and surrounding areas as part of a four-year agreement between the Homes and Communities Agency and Somer Housing Group. An investment of £10 million from the Affordable Homes Programme will help provide 414 new homes in the West of England (Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire). A further 52 homes will be developed in Wiltshire and six in Taunton.
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York Housing Association
A £3.7 million initiative to build a series of social housing projects in York, Scarborough and East Yorkshire has been unveiled by York Housing Association.
In total, 33 new homes will be created, including 12 family homes in York and 15 one-bedroom flats to ease homelessness in Scarborough.
In addition, the Association is to create three supported housing units in Scarborough for people with mental health issues and another three supported homes for young people leaving care in East Yorkshire.
The announcement comes after York Housing Association was awarded £600,000 from the Affordable Homes Programme. It has also secured a new loan facility with the Royal Bank of Scotland that will ensure that the HCA funding can be augmented by sufficient private finance.