Communities secretary Eric Pickles has released details of a £500m fund for private developers to restart stalled housing and commercial schemes hit by site infrastructure problems.
The Growing Places Fund will provide bridging finance to get projects going, where they have halted because of problems with road access, contaminated land and flood risks.
The kick-start cash will be channeled through local enterprise partnerships across England.
To ensure work can start straight away to help get Britain building again, all cash will be allocated from the end of January.
Under the terms of the deals, funds will be repaid once developments are built and sold.
Main schemes
- £12.9m for the Liverpool City Region
- £23.9m for the Leeds City Region
- £17.4m for the Local Enterprise Partnership covering Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire
- £14.9m for Birmingham and Solihull;
- Nearly £40m for London
- £14.2m for the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership
Unveiling the funding deals, Pickles said: "The £500m Growing Places Fund will unlock much-needed local infrastructure and get the homes we need built.
"It will be local enterprise partnerships, made up of the people and businesses who know their local areas best, who will decide where this cash boost will be spent.
"I now want to see these partnerships coming together and finding innovative ways to unlock local sites and help get Britain building again."
Chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said: "This is a flexible fix-it fund that will make a real difference on the ground, improving the lives of local residents and boosting the local economy. From building strategic link roads to reducing congestion, the investment will set businesses free and create jobs."
Full list of funding agreements
| (£) | |
| England |
449,999,998 |
|
(The) North Eastern Local |
16,712,905 |
| Tees Valley | 5,694,058 |
| Cumbria | 4,440,917 |
| Lancashire | 12,879,177 |
| Greater Manchester | 24,739,591 |
| Liverpool City Region | 12,979,358 |
| Cheshire and Warrington | 8,751,074 |
| York and North Yorkshire | 6,217,647 |
| Leeds City Region | 23,991,391 |
| Humber | 5,816,714 |
| Sheffield City Region | 12,307,688 |
| Lincolnshire | 6,493,608 |
| Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire |
17,466,313 |
| Leicester and Leicestershire | 8,896,731 |
| Stoke and Staffordshire | 7,611,590 |
|
The Marches - Shropshire, Herefordshire, |
5,438,945 |
| Black Country | 9,619,452 |
| Worcestershire | 3,667,852 |
| Coventry and Warwickshire | 8,519,680 |
| Greater Birmingham and Solihull | 14,932,970 |
| South East Midlands | 13,100,217 |
| Northamptonshire | 3,925,692 |
| Buckinghamshire | 4,167,713 |
| Greater Cambridge & Greater Peterborough | 10,664,599 |
| Hertfordshire | 10,078,517 |
| New Anglia | 12,046,767 |
| Pan London | 39,445,808 |
|
South East - East Sussex, Essex, Kent, |
32,553,542 |
| Coast to Capital | 15,083,882 |
| Enterprise M3 | 14,435,316 |
| Solent | 12,008,783 |
| Oxford City Region | 5,996,797 |
| Thames Valley Berkshire | 10,649,405 |
| Gloucestershire | 5,638,139 |
| West of England | 11,324,861 |
| Swindon and Wiltshire | 6,218,540 |
| Dorset | 6,392,150 |
| Heart of the SW | 14,263,733 |
| Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly | 4,211,133 |
| No LEP | 616,743 |
Mike Leonard, Director of the Modern Masonry Alliance said, “We of course welcome anything that supports our campaign to get Britain building.
“We look forward to working with the house building industry to swiftly understand how many additional new houses the funding could unlock. However, we remain fundamentally concerned that it is a lack of mortgage finance rather than infrastructure that is holding back private sector housing at this stage.
“For this reason we would repeat our call for the Government to immediately introduce a mortgage indemnity scheme to bridge the unreasonable deposit levels still being required by mortgage providers."
“For this reason we would repeat our call for the Government to immediately introduce a mortgage indemnity scheme to bridge the unreasonable deposit levels still being required by mortgage providers."
