4,000 homes may be built at six sites
Infrastructure will kick-start schemes
HOUSING: About 4,000 new homes could be built at six development sites around Yorkshire after the Government revealed the projects in the region set to benefit from a £5bn infrastructure fund.
It came as a study revealed that the typical cost of buying a home in a UK city has reached its least affordable level in a decade.
ABOUT 4,000 new homes could be built at six development sites around Yorkshire after the Government revealed the projects in the region set to benefit from a £5bn infrastructure fund.
The £23.5m in investment from the Housing Infrastructure Fund came as a study revealed that the typical cost of buying a home in a UK city has reached its least affordable level in a decade.
As part of efforts to solve the housing crisis, the new money will fund key local infrastructure projects including new roads, cycle paths, flood defences and land remediation work, all essential ahead of building the homes.
According to the Government, without this financial support these projects would struggle to go ahead or take years for work to begin. The schemes include: £1.5m for a ‘foul sewer’ and pond which will allow 1,400 homes, a district centre and school facilities to be built at the City Fields site near Wakefield.
£6.3m to secure the construction of a relief road on land east of Otley, which would enable the delivery of about 560 homes.
£3.6m for infrastructure such as drainage works and footpaths at the Manor Cluster, a group of four stalled housing development sites in Sheffield, which will unlock more than 400 homes.
£2.2m for the Thurnscoe Housing Development, near Barnsley, which will help connect infrastructure to a greenfield site where 311 new homes could be built.
£1m for land remediation work on the ChaCo & Unity Development in Roundhay Road, Leeds, unlocking 63 new homes.
£8.8m for a scheme at Olympia Park, Selby, where funding for highway improvement and land remediation work could allow the development of some 1,500 homes.
Leader of Selby District Council Mark Crane said the Olympia Park scheme was “such an important development site for us”.
He said: “I know that people will have been wondering what’s been going on at the site for some time. With this significant investment from the Government we’ll be able to push ahead with making this site viable for development.
“It’s got massive potential for us to deliver new homes and business growth. The Selby district is the fastest-growing in North Yorkshire and it’s sites like this that will help us to meet this need.”
Leeds City Council executive member for regeneration Richard Lewis welcomed the funding for the projects in Leeds and Otley.
He said: “The Roundhay Road project will support self-build housing and the Otley scheme will enable planned housing growth supported by a new relief road along with a new primary school and affordable housing.
“We look forward to working with the Government on finalising the details of these schemes in the months to come in keeping with our commitment to provide and support new housing and growth at sustainable levels and in the right way for all communities in the city to benefit from.”
The £5bn Housing Infrastructure Fund is a Government capital grant programme to help unlock new homes in areas with the greatest housing demand.
Separately, a report by the Lloyds Bank Affordable Cities Review found that the average house price across cities equated to seven times typical annual earnings in 2017.
This is the highest house priceto-income multiple since the average city home cost seven and a half times earnings in 2007.
In 2012, the average city home cost about 5.6 times wages. But over the past five years, the average house price across UK cities has surged by over a third (36 per cent), reaching £232,945 in 2017. Over the same period, average city earnings have risen by nine per cent to £33,420.
With a house price-to-earnings ratio of 4.5, Bradford was judged to be the fourth-most affordable city. York was the 17th least affordable.