Yorkshire sites selected for Government house building scheme

Sites in Sheffield and Barnsley have been named as "housing zones"

The Hoyland-Wombwell Housing Zone in Barnsley and Sheffield Housing Zone are among six sites chosen for the roll-out.

Local authorities will now be invited to bid for a share of an £18m fund to help them develop the sites into accomodation.

Ministers will also invite other councils to bid to create housing zones in their own areas.

Announcing the new sites, housing minister Gavin Barwell said they offer “offer enormous potential”.

He said that altogether they are expected to deliver around 10,000 new homes.

“We want to turbo-charge house building on large sites to get the homes built in the places people want to live, so that this country works for everyone, not just the privileged few,” he said.

“These sites offer enormous potential to transform brownfield land into new homes and our £18m funding will help get them built much sooner.”

The Government first invited local authorities to bid for its “flagship” housing zone programme in 2014.

The scheme was set up to fast-track construction on brownfield sites, and encouraged councils to work with private developers.

Succesful councils are able to apply for a share of a multi-million pound “capacity fund”.

And today, the Department for Communities and Local Government will announce a fresh round of bidding for councils hoping to create their own zones.

Ministers are also due to announce funding for a new garden town at Otterpool Park in Kent, which is expected to deliver up to 12,000 new homes.

This is on top of a further £1.5m to support existing garden towns