First phase of £180m brownfield fund open for council bids
0The government has launched a £180m brownfield fund to help councils in England transform disused urban areas by building more than 17,000 new homes and creating more than 50,000 jobs.
Councils are currently able to bid for the first £40m of the second Brownfield Land Release Fund, while a further £140m will be allocated over the next two years.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) said the initial £40m will help support local regeneration projects, releasing council land for around 4,000 new homes. This will boost local economies and help thousands of people into homeownership.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, minister for government efficiency, said: “This will provide a boost to the economy, foster the creation of thousands of jobs, and it is also the opportunity to convert derelict and unloved land into beautiful new hamlets or villages.”
The fund aims to support the transformation of small council-owned sites that have been previously developed, by funding small-scale infrastructure and remediation work to enable the release of the land for new homes.
DLUHC said the fund will transform derelict and unused brownfield sites across England into 17,600 new homes and create around 54,000 jobs over the next four years.
The scheme is part of the government’s wider objective to level up communities across England. It also builds on the success of a previous £77m fund, which supported the regeneration of unused brownfield sites.
In response to the launch of the fund, Cllr James Jamieson, chairman of the Local Government Association, said: “We are delighted to be a key partner in supporting the government’s £180m Brownfield Land Release Fund.
“Councils sit at the centre of the collective national ambition to provide more and better housing, and this fund offers an excellent opportunity for English councils to unlock their brownfield land for new homes and deliver local housing priorities.”
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