Halton set for a housing boost
HALTON could be in for a housing boost after it was revealed as one of the areas due to benefit from the Government’s Starter Homes Land Fund (SHLF) announced by housing minister Gavin Barwell.
The borough is one of six areas listed as part of the Liverpool City Council partnership’s winning bid.
Mr Barwell said the scheme will build thousands of homes exclusively for firsttime buyers between 23 and 40 years old at a discount of at least 20% below market value.
The project will focus on brownfield land.
The Liverpool City Region partnership is one of 30 local authority schemes picked for the first wave of SHLF based on their ability to deliver.
The partnerships were established under the Government’s £1.2bn Starter Homes Land Fund which backs building residential properties on sites across England.
The spokesman said these will support wider neighbourhood growth and regeneration including of some town centre sites.
The first schemes will begin construction later in 2017 along with sites supported by the Homes And Communities Agency.
The Starter Homes Land Fund was set up to prepare land for ‘quality’ starter home developments which can be built by developers or through accelerated construction by 2020.
Each local authority partnership will work with the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to identify and develop more opportunities for the fund.
The HCA has called for expressions of interest from local authorities keen to use their land to deliver homes through the £1.7bn accelerated construction scheme recently announced with a goal of building 15,000 homes on surplus public sector land by 2020.
Mr Barwell said: “This Government is committed to building starter homes to help young first time buyers get on the housing ladder.
“This first wave of partnerships shows the strong local interest to build thousands of starter homes on hundreds of brownfield sites in the coming years.
“One in three councils has expressed an interest to work with us so far.” ●