Healey gives councils huge social housing funding boost

Housing Minister John Healey today announced the release of funding to build 11,200 new homes, regenerate ten of the most deprived areas of the country and create 20,000 jobs in the building industry.

This boost follows hard on the heels of the Prime Minister's commitment - set out in Building Britain's Future - to invest an extra £1.5 billion towards building a total of 110,000 new affordable homes over the next two years.

Mr Healey announced a major £1.7 billion cash boost for ten local authorities in six regions under the housing private finance initiative (PFI) that will allow them to deliver 4,500 new or improved council homes as well as 1,600 new affordable rented homes.

The Minister has also announced that in the last month through the Homes and Communities Agency he has released more than £300 million to 50 Housing Associations across 119 local authority areas, to build a further 5,100 affordable homes.

He also announced the allocation of £35 million to help regenerate almost 700 homes across 11 urban areas through the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders programme.

Taken together the funding PFI and affordable housing funding will help to create around 20,000 jobs.

Mr Healey also revealed that in the first quarter of this financial year alone, and despite the economic downturn, the Government is supporting the construction of 14,000 new affordable homes with over £430 million invested in those three months alone - double the investment of a year ago.

Housing Minister John Healey said: "Building homes, creating jobs and lifting communities out of deprivation is a top priority for us in Government.

"I'm determined to pull out all the stops to see new homes built to meet our need for more housing in Britain.

"At a time when private house building has declined dramatically during the recession, government investment and action means more affordable homes are now being built more quickly and we are helping to keep the construction industry going.

"In fact we've doubled the investment in the homes we're building through our affordable housing programme compared to this time last year.

"We have had to make some tough decisions across government about where we spend our money but we need to build more homes in Britain, and especially more homes available at rents people can afford. This is my top priority for this year and the next.

"The steps I'm announcing today put real momentum behind the Prime Minister's Housing Pledge and I want to see work start on sites across the country within months."

In a further boost to housing, Mr Healey confirmed today that there have been more than 300 bids from developers for the Government's new Kickstart fund - first announced in the Budget and now topped up to £1 billion - to unlock stalled private sector developments. The Homes and Communities Agency is currently assessing bids and the successful projects will be announced later this month.

He also confirmed the Government has so far received expressions of interest from more than 70 local authorities across the country for the new council house building fund - first announced at the budget and now topped up to more than £350 million. The first successful bids for this will be announced in September.

As well as more high quality affordable homes, the Government wants to ensure a high quality service for the tenants who live in them. For this reason, Mr Healey today set out Government directions that will support the new social housing regulator, the Tenant Services Authority (TSA) to set high standards.

Sir Bob Kerslake, chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency, said: "The funding for additional homes announced by Government this month will add substantially to our funding available for new affordable homes, helping local authorities to meet housing need in their areas and simultaneously helping house builders and RSL to maintain new build activity.
"Government has had to make some difficult decisions as to where that funding should come from, based in part on the HCA's existing wider programme, but there is a premium on new build activity and I am pleased that the sector has seen the benefit in putting an additional £1.5bn into housing delivery."

The ten local authorities in six regions receiving £1.7 billion to transform some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country are listed below:

East Midlands

Northampton Borough Council
Nottingham City Council

London

London Borough of Southwark

South East

Portsmouth City Council

South West

Cornwall

West Midlands

Birmingham City Council
Shropshire County Council
Stoke-on-Trent

Yorkshire & Humber

Hull City Council
Leeds City Council

The 11 areas receiving £35 million regeneration money through the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders programme are listed below:

HMR Pathfinder

Birmingham Sandwell £1,700,000
East Lancashire £5,000,000
Hull and East Riding £2,900,000
Manchester Salford £4,600,000
Merseyside £5,100,000
Newcastle Gateshead £3,200,000
North Staffordshire £3,800,000
Oldham Rochdale £3,000,000
South Yorkshire (including W.Yorkshire) £3,900,000
Tees Valley £1,200,000
West Cumbria £200,000