House building pilot gains traction

The Sheffield City Region (SCR) Housing Fund pilot launched just three months ago to encourage local authorities, registered housing providers and private sector developers to build to help meet the SCR target of providing at least 7,000 new homes a year.

Eight of the schemes that applied to the fund have now moved forward to the next stage of the process to be judged on the strength of their business cases. If successful, they will receive funding to get underway in the next few months, building a range of accommodation from apartments to three and four-bedroom homes.

The schemes are based in five of the nine SCR local authority areas.

The pilot, which supports housing schemes which wouldn’t otherwise be able to progress, complements the Government’s existing national housing investment programmes.

Simon Carr, a member of the Local Enterprise Partnership of the SCR, said: “We have been delighted with the high levels of interest we received. This means we not only have promising projects to examine, but also have a pipeline of further projects which we will look at when further funding becomes available.

“We are deeply committed to providing high-quality homes which meet the needs of this booming region. I’m really looking forward to seeing spades in the ground as the successful projects get underway.

“The way to get things done quickly is through the Sheffield City Region. We continue to build successful partnerships involving both the public and private sectors to develop and support schemes that create new homes, jobs and economic growth.”