Government pledges £1.9bn of funding for housebuilding

The Government has announced two new funds to support housebuilding, the Land Assembly Fund and the Small Sites Fund, which they say will help release land to deliver their ambition of building 300,000 new homes a year.

The £1.3bn Land Assembly Fund will be used to acquire land needing work and get it ready for the market, making it less risky for developers to invest in and start building.

£630bn Small Sites Fund will be for public landowners and local authorities that are struggling to get building on land in their area.

In particular, grant funding will be provided to speed up getting the right infrastructure in place to support home building on stalled small sites.

Both funds will help tackle issues like land contamination, infrastructure requirements, and complex land ownership which the Government says can present real barriers to building homes where they are needed most.

‘We need to act on a number of fronts to build the homes this country needs,’ said Communities Secretary, James Brokenshire said:

‘The availability of this investment will help us intervene in the sort of sites that aren’t yet ready to build on, or where developers have been put off.

‘Developers can now get straight on with building homes, rather than overcoming the barriers to build. And in the same way we are also supporting councils that have land for housing, but need additional help to enable development.’

Homes England Chairman, Sir Edward Lister added: ‘Homes England is stepping in where the market isn’t working, unlocking land and releasing sites to those developers that are committed to providing homes at pace.

‘The £1.9bn announced by the Government today will mean we can invest in crucial infrastructure and help local authorities to get more homes built on public land.’