John Healey announces further £500m boost for affordable homes

Housing Minister John Healey today announced a boost to housebuilding in England, by confirming nearly £500million funding to build around 8,000 affordable homes across the country. This takes total Government funding for housebuilding to £3.5 billion since June.

Every region of the country is benefiting from this extra cash to build much-needed affordable homes for sale and rent. Over 3,000 of these new homes are expected to be available through the government’s HomeBuy schemes, offering first time buyers a helping hand onto the property ladder. And nearly 5,000 homes will be available for affordable rent through housing associations.

Schemes receiving this additional funding include:

The Washington Arms development in Dudley – £1.9million to transform a site dominated by a derelict pub into 42 new homes for affordable rent and sale;

Library Street, London - Part of the regeneration of Elephant and Castle in the Capital, £3million is being allocated towards 21 new homes for rent including seven three-bedroom flats and six four-bedroom houses; and

Supported housing in Richmond, Yorkshire - £1.7million for 31 new homes for single homeless people, offering particular help for ex-service personnel.
Since June, and despite the recession, John Healey has approved £3.5billion Government funding for nearly 60,000 new homes. As well as going to housing associations, this cash has been used to help developers to kickstart their stalled projects and get housebuilding back on track, and to fund the largest council house-building programme for two decades.

To read the rest of this article visit the Communities and Local Governemnt website

A regional breakdown of the £3.5billion Government funding allocated to housebuilding since June can be found at: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/xls/1482451.xls.