Housing and Planning Minister today (4 December 2017)
announced that the Planning Delivery
Fund is now open for bids and will support ambitious
local authorities and third sector organisations in areas of high
housing need to plan for new homes and infrastructure.
Initially opening up £11 million of the fund, councils will be
able to apply to help gain the skills or capacity they need to
deliver high quality housing growth at scale, pace and implement
wider planning reforms. The fund is aimed at encouraging more
innovation in the design quality of new housing developments, as
well as provide design advice and support to local authorities.
As part of the government’s plans to raise housing supply to
300,000 per year on average by the mid-2020s, a package of
measure has been announced to boost local authority planning
capacity, support councils to take a proactive role in planning
and encourage ambition and leadership in the delivery of new
communities.
Others measures announced along with the £25 million Planning
Delivery Fund include:
- a further £3 million funding to support the delivery of the
14 garden villages that are part of the government’s existing
programme
- publishing a consultation on
plans to allow the creation of locally led New Town Development
Corporations, and help speed up the delivery of new garden
towns.
Housing and Planning Minister said:
Locally-led developments have enormous potential to deliver the
scale and quality of housing growth that we need. By supporting
our local authorities, we will be able to unlock more homes
where people want to live.
These measures including the £25 million 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.
Across England, the government is currently supporting 24
locally-led garden cities, towns and villages, which have the
potential to deliver around 220,000 homes.
Backed by £16 million funding, a further £3 million has been
allocated to 14 garden villages in the programme to fund
dedicated staff and studies and assessments that are vital to the
delivery of garden villages that are key to successful delivery.
The government’s housing white
paper in February 2017 committed to the creation of New
Town Development Corporations, which would be overseen by the
local authority or authorities covering the area proposed for a
new garden community, rather than by Whitehall. Government is now
seeking views on this proposal.
The first part of Planning Delivery
Fund allocation of £11 million will be open to bids for
the financial years 2017-18 to 2018-19.
A garden town is a development of more than 10,000 homes. Garden
villages are smaller settlements of between 1,500 and 10,000
homes.
The 14 garden villages are: Long Marston, Oxfordshire Cotswold,
Tresham, Culm, Welborne, West Carclaze, Dunton Hills, Spitalgate
Heath, Halsnead, Longcross, Bailrigg, Infinity Garden Village, St
Cuthberts and Handforth.
Measures apply to England only.
