Whitehall launches £25m planning fund

The Government has launched a £25m fund to help local authorities plan for new homes and infrastructure in their areas.

Whitehall plans to increase the housing supply to 300,000 per year on average by the mid-2020s in order to solve the country’s acute housing crisis.

The closest the UK has got to this target in recent years was in 2006-07 when 219,000 homes were built. During 2016-17, 184,000 homes were completed.

The first round of funding from the Planning Delivery Fund will give councils the chance to bid for £11m to help them gain the skills or capacity they need to deliver housing growth at scale and pace.

It will also support them with implementing wider planning reforms.

‘Locally-led developments have enormous potential to deliver the scale and quality of housing growth that we need,’ said housing and planning minister Alok Sharma.

‘By supporting our local authorities, we will be able to unlock more homes where people want to live.

‘These measures including the £25m of government support which will help develop new communities that will not only help deliver high-quality well-designed homes, but will also bring new jobs and facilities and a boost to local economies.’

Other measures announced alongside this fund were a further £3m to support the delivery of 14 garden villages, and the publishing of a consultation on plans to allow the creation of locally led New Town Development Corporations.

This story first appeared on localgov.co.uk.

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