Modern Methods for £55m housing boost

Some £55 million grant funding has been agreed with Homes England to deliver 4,000 new homes with the first developments getting underway later this year, it has been announced.

The deal will support 12 local authorities to accelerate housing across England on sites in their ownership and the programme prioritises the use of modern methods of construction will contribute to an increase the build time by an average of 40%.

The funding totalling £55million has been awarded through the Government’s £450 million Local Authority Accelerated Construction (LAAC) Programme and will support local authorities with a range of work required to prepare their sites for the development of new homes such as infrastructure enabling works, planning and technical expertise and site remediation.

The funding will be used to kick start the development of 4,000 new homes across England, including 1,400 at a 400 acre site at Horton Heath, Eastleigh. Eastleigh Borough Council purchased the site in 2018 and the development will benefit from £20.8million of LAAC funding to accelerate the delivery of a mix of one, two, three and four bedroom homes, including a minimum of 30 percent affordable housing.

Today’s announcement includes deals with local authorities from across England. They are the City of York Council, Gateshead Council, Newcastle City Council, Pendle Borough Council, Eastleigh Borough Council, Medway Council, Dorset Council, Leicestershire County Council, High Peak Borough Council, City of Lincoln Council, Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, and South Norfolk Council.

‘We haven’t built enough homes in this country for far too long and our accelerated construction programme is here to change that, and fast,’ said Housing Minister Kit Malthouse.

‘This £55 million funding boost will help councils get 4,000 new homes built across the country using the latest modern methods that cut down on construction time. We must keep building more, better, faster to meet our ambition to building 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s,’ he added.

According to Stephen Kinsella, executive director for Land at Homes England, the funding will enable local authorities to accelerate housing delivery by enabling them to prepare sites for development and bring forward the construction of new homes incorporating modern methods of construction.