Yahoo Finance Cash boost to help build 200,000 homes in new garden towns
A £9m ($11.6m) cash injection will speed up government plans to build new garden towns and villages across England, the government announced on Wednesday.
The Garden Communities project is expected to deliver 200,000 properties on large sites by 2050, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
The department said this latest funding, administered by Homes England, will help get 21 sites across the nation ready for development.
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The developments being funded include a 2,000 home site for custom and self-builders in Bicester, on land purchased by the council from the Ministry of Defence.
It will also go towards sites in Basingstoke, Didcot, Taunton, Harlow & Gilston and across Northamptonshire, where development is already underway.
Kit Malthouse MP, housing minister, said: “We have not built enough homes in this country for the last three decades, and we are turning that around as we work towards our target to build 300,000 properties a year by the mid-2020s.
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“This £9m funding boost is giving councils the support and cash injection they need so they can finish planning new developments and get diggers on site.”
The UK is currently facing its biggest housing shortfall on record, with a backlog of almost four million homes, according to research by Heriot-Watt University.
At least 340,000 new homes need to be built every year until 2031 for the UK to clear this backlog.
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The government is currently aiming to build 300,000 new properties every year by the mid-2020s.
Almost £500m will go towards building 11,000 affordable homes across the UK, the MHCLG recently announced.
On top of this, homes will be built on London rooftops after Homes England agreed upon a £9m three-year funding deal with real estate developer Apex Airspace Developments.
