Birmingham's house building plans set for boost

Birmingham City Council is preparing to bid for funding to deliver 200 high quality new family homes.

Cabinet has approved plans to seek financial support to deliver homes across a range of tenures, through the Government’s Public Land Initiative at its meeting on 8 March 2010.

The council is seeking to build at least 200 homes through the initiative and is keen to start construction this year, with homes complete and ready for occupation by 2012.

The council is contributing its own land through the initiative, at a value of £4.3 million and will seek Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) funding towards the cost of building new rented homes, creating a mix of tenures available.

Potential areas of house building include Pype Hayes, Bournville, Newtown and Sheldon.
The Public Land Initiative (PLI) is designed to stimulate private housebuilding in the wake of the recent recession, bringing new construction players into the housing market using land in public ownership.

Rather than selling land outright to these developers, the council will benefit from HCA grant and ‘deferred payment’ based on the profits made by the private developer.

As part of the council’s drive to address worklessness, apprenticeship opportunities in the construction industry will be available as part of the house building programme. Young people will be able to develop new skills with on the job training.

Cllr John Lines, Cabinet Member for Housing said, “We need to build new homes to meet the needs of our people, both those who want to rent and those who want to buy. The Public Land Initiative is one way that we can encourage the private sector to start building again and it’s great news that Cabinet has given us the green light”.