Good news :).
It was announced this week that the government will set aside £2 billion of new public borrowing to fund an Accelerated Construction Scheme to make public land with planning permission available to builders in England.
A further £3 billion Home Building Fund will offer loans to stimulate new projects. Builders will be encouraged, through these funding pots, to use innovative construction techniques with the aim of delivering homes twice as quickly.
In addition, changes to regulations will make it easier for developers to demolish commercial property and replace it with housing on a like-for-like basis.
Planning authorities will be empowered to grant permission in principle on sites identified in new brownfield registers, to take the risk out of developing a potential 140,000 homes a year.
Chancellor Philip Hammond and Communities Secretary Sajid Javid set out details of the funds at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham today.
“We’ll use all the tools at our disposal to accelerate housebuilding and ensure that over time, housing becomes more affordable,” Hammond said in a statement prior to his speech.
The Home Building Fund will release £1 billion of short-term loans for small builders, custom-builders and innovative developers to deliver 25,500 homes by 2020, while a further £2 billion of long-term funding for infrastructure will unlock up to 200,000 homes over the longer term, it was stated.
