Legal News
Ministers invite councils to bid for £3 billion housing fund (27 January 2014)
Date: 27/01/2014
Housing associations and developers across the UK are being encouraged to bid for cash from a multi-billion pound fund that the government says will help to create hundreds of thousands of affordable homes during the next five years.
The new scheme, which was announced last summer, is designed to kick start investment in the construction sector and is likely to support an estimated 165,000 jobs between 2015 and 2018. It is also an important step in the government's aim to avert an affordable housing crisis, which could take hold by 2021 if approximately one million sub-market rent properties are not built.
Councils, housing associations and house-builders will now be able to bid for government funding, with the new scheme set to roll out following the 2015 election. Applicants bidding will have to make sure that they are focusing on the “needs of residents” and must maximise the use of current space. Labour recently pledged to build 200,000 affordable properties on an annual basis if elected.
Housing minister Kris Hopkins said: “House-building is an essential part of this government's long-term economic plan. That's why we have designed an ambitious new scheme to build affordable homes at the fastest rate for 20 years.” He added that “real progress” had already been made, as around 100,000 homes have been built since 2011.
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