UK government earmarks £25m for Planning Delivery Fund
The UK government is inviting applications from local councils and other organisations for its £25m ($33m) Planning Delivery Fund, aimed at boosting innovation in housing developments and offering design support to local authorities. It is part of a package of measures, including the allocation of £3m for an existing garden village initiative, and the consultation on plans to speed up the development of new garden towns. The government aims to build 300,000 homes per year by 2020 to help ease the current crisis.

Housing and Planning Minister Alok Sharma 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 Alok Sharma 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.

Further information

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.

Garden Village Capacity funding allocation Welborne, Fareham BC £275,000 Tresham, East Northants DC £275,000 West Carclaze,Cornwall Council £275,000 Long Marston, Stratford-upon-Avon DC £230,000 St Cuthbert’s, Carlisle City Council £275,000 Culm, Mid Devon DC £230,000 Halsnead, Knowsley MBC £230,000 Handforth, East Cheshire DC £188,000 Spitalgate Heath, South Kesteven DC £230,000 Dunton Hills, Brentwood DC £230,000 Longcross, Runnymede DC £230,000 Bailrigg,Lancaster City Council £130,000 Infinity, Derby City Council & South Derbyshire DC £101,000 Oxon Cotswold, West Oxfordshire DC £101,000

Measures apply to England only.

Read the full written ministerial statement.