The housing crisis in England and Wales has been a consistent discussion topic amongst conveyancers in recent years. The Government’s desire to build 300,000 homes per year is inevitably outweighed against the issues like desirable locations, available land and time constraints.
In a recent announcement, James Brockenshire, Hosing Secretary, has offered insight into additional funding that has been made available to tackle infrastructure requirements, land contamination and complexities surrounding land ownership.
Homes England and the Land Assembly Fund have been given £1.3 billion to help reshape land that is currently unfit for building purposes. The money will help to ensure that the land is ready for development.
The country is also littered with small sites that struggle to get the right infrastructure in place to help build on them. The small Sites Fund and the additional £630 million, should help to provide grant funding that will help speed up the planning process as well.
James Brockenshire, Housing Secretary, commented: “We need to act on a number of fronts to build the homes this country needs. The availability of this investment will help us intervene in the sort of sites that aren’t yet ready to build on, or where developers have been put off.
“Developers can now get straight on with building homes, rather than overcoming the barriers to build. And in the same way we are also supporting councils that have land for housing, but need additional help to enable development.
“An example of Homes England acquiring land is Burgess Hill in Sussex, a site that desperately needed affordable housing, but which sat undeveloped for years. The national housing agency has stepped in, bought the land and is also delivering the infrastructure, so that the roads, schools and doctor’s surgeries are all in place for over 3,000 new homes that will now be built there.
Sir Edward Lister, Homes England Chairman, said: “The £1.9 billion announced by the government today will mean we can invest in crucial infrastructure and help local authorities to get more homes built on public land.”
Whilst the Government continue to struggle to provide the housing needed for this country, it is gratifying to see an attempt being made to make things easier for smaller developers and smaller sites.
Will additional housing stock improve the conveyancing sector?
