The property industry has welcomed two government funds that will help developers to build homes for first-time buyers on brownfield land.
Communities Secretary Greg Clark has announced the launch of a £26million fund which will help architects, developers, councils, and housing associations to acquire brownfield land on which to build Starter Homes. Clark also made available £10million to help local authorities prepare brownfield sites for development.
The British Property Federation (BPF) has hailed the launch of the funds as a welcome step towards unlocking brownfield land, which often demands a complicated and lengthy planning process, and which is expensive to develop.
It has warned, however, that more funding will need to be provided if the Starter Homes initiative is to deliver the 200,000 homes that the government has promised.
Starter Homes will be offered exclusively to first-time buyers aged under 40 with a discount of 20% on market values in exchange for exempting developers from certain levies.
Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation, commented: “Brownfield sites often prove to be extremely lengthy and complex to develop, and if the government wants to see significant amount of housing delivered on them, then developers and housebuilders are going to need some help.
“The funds launched today show welcome recognition of this fact, but we will need to see more from government if it is to reach its Starter Homes targets.”
The fund will used to acquire brownfield sites to provide land for starter homes. Money from the sales of these sites will go back to the government – securing good value for the taxpayer.
Communities Secretary Greg Clark said: "As a one nation government we are on the side of hard-working people and that is why we are committed to delivering 200,000 starter homes by the end of this Parliament, providing a real boost to aspiring young first-time buyers.
"This competitive fund will build homes that will clearly show the wide range of new properties that will be available for first-time buyers as they take their first step on the housing ladder.
"We are also helping bring back into use more brownfield land for development, keeping the country building and delivering the homes our communities need."
Andy Rose, Chief Executive of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), added: "The HCA is ready to support the government in delivering this key priority, which aims to set the standard for starter homes. By using our land and development expertise, we will help even more first-time buyers into affordable home ownership.
"We look forward to working with our key delivery partners including councils, developers, housing associations, small builders and architects in taking this forward, through the identification and purchase of land suitable for exemplar starter home sites."
The government’s new Housing Bill and proposed national planning policy changes will introduce a series of planning reforms that will ensure hundreds of thousands of starter homes will be built for aspiring young homeowners. This will build on the work that local authorities are already carrying out through the local planning system with figures showing that the number of homes in locally led plans up by a quarter.
These show that before March 2012 the average number of homes planned for by local authorities stood at 573 per year. But radical reforms in the last Parliament put Local Plans and housing delivery at the heart of the planning system.
This has helped expand the housing pipeline with those Local Plans published after the reforms containing on average 717 homes per year – a 25% increase.
