Written statement on Housing Investment in Greater Manchester and the West of England

Sajid Javid (Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government):Today, the Government announces that we are now working with a further 44 areas across England to develop projects with the remaining £4.1 billion of the £5 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund, with the potential to deliver over 400,000 homes in areas where housing need is greatest. This is in addition to the West Midlands, where Housing Infrastructure Fund funding for co-development was announced as part of a housing package at Spring Statement. These are strategic, long term projects which will deliver housing not just for now, but for generations to come - creating new settlements, growing places and backing local authority ambition for growth and regeneration. They follow on from our announcement made on 1 February 2018 to take forward 133 Marginal Viability Fund projects worth £866 million from the Housing Infrastructure Fund to provide infrastructure to unlock up to 200,000 homes. This announcement reinforces our continued commitment to fix the broken housing market and support projects that would otherwise struggle to go ahead or take years for work to begin.

We are committed to helping to create a new generation of strong, vibrant communities where people want to live, work and build families. We are supporting the development of 24 new locally-led garden cities, towns and villages, ranging in size from 1,500 new homes to over 40,000 homes. Over half of these settlements will go forward to the next stage of Housing Infrastructure Fund Forward Funding co-development.

We also want to back places with ambitious plans for new homes where they are needed. Today the Government announces housing packages for Greater Manchester, who will commit to deliver 227,000 homes by 2035, and the West of England, to accelerate annual housing delivery to 7500 homes over the next three years. Both of these areas will also go forward to the next stage of Housing Infrastructure Fund Forward Funding co-development. This is in addition to the housing packages agreed with Oxfordshire and the West Midlands.The Forward Funding component of the Housing Infrastructure Fund was available to the uppermost tier of local authorities in England to bid into, with a focus on strategic, high impact infrastructure projects.

The full area breakdown of successful Forward Fund projects we will be working with through co-development can be found on the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/housing-infrastructure-fund

As this is still a competitive process, success at this stage is not a guarantee of Housing Infrastructure Fund funding. Shortlisted local authorities will submit their final business cases and successful funded bids will be announced from Autumn 2018 onwards.

The Housing Infrastructure Fund is divided into two streams:

A Marginal Viability Fund – available to all single and lower tier local authorities in England – to provide a piece of infrastructure funding to get additional sites allocated or existing sites unblocked quickly. Bids have a soft cap of £10 million.

• A Forward Fund – available to the uppermost tier of local authorities in England – for a small number of strategic and high-impact infrastructure projects. Bids have a soft cap of £250 million.
• Housing packages are agreements between central and local government, in which local areas agree to build more homes in return for a package of support from government.

Detail on the housing packages for Greater Manchester, West of England and West Midlands can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/housing-deals