By Helen Moody | 14 August 2014
Councils will be able to join forces with developers to bid for a share of £200m in cash to build new homes on previously-developed land, housing and planning minister Brandon Lewis has announced.
Setting out the bidding criteria for funding, which the government hopes will create ten new housing zones on brownfield land, Lewis said he wanted proposals to ‘transform disused and derelict land, and ensure the new homes are built quickly’.
The new zones, which will be outside London, should be large enough to deliver 750 to 2,000 properties.
In June the government also announced plans for up to 50,000 new homes to be built on 20 new housing zones in the capital and a separate bidding process is already underway for this £400m fund.
Across the country there is enough brownfield land to deliver up to 200,000 new homes, Lewis said, and ministers hope as much as 90% of this land will have planning permission for homes by 2020.
‘Councils who team up with developers to apply for funding will need to demonstrate a commitment to build the new homes quickly, and make the most of innovative building and delivery techniques such as off-site construction and custom-build,’ he added.
Last week the Department for Communities and Local Government also launched a £3m fund to get work started at housing sites where development has already been agreed.
Councils will be charged with using the funding to tackle outstanding planning issues that are causing delay and preventing building from getting started.
