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Governemnt boost council house building
Published: 2009-09-22 09:14:26
The government has authorised £127 million funding to build over 2,000 new council homes across the country. Involving 47 local authorities, this is the biggest council house building programme for almost 20 years and is designed to be match-funded to provide a total investment of over £250 million. The bidding process requires new developments to meet specific local needs, to be able to begin construction before March 2010 and to be entirely composed of homes for rent.
Only four councils submitting bids were turned down and they are going to work with the Home and Communities Agency (HCA) to resubmit either later this autumn or in a second round next year.
The new council developments are varied in both size and type. The scheme in Ealing, London, is for 277 larger family houses, while 61 homes for elderly residents will be built in Gateshead and there is a project in Nottingham for just eight homes on a derelict site in an existing estate. In Rotherham 36 homes are intended to be the first stage in the regeneration of the Dalton area. Taken together, all the schemes are expected to provide employment for at least 5,000 people.