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Majority of £400m brownfield fund delivered directly to northern city regions
City regions in the North are to receive the majority of the government’s £400m Brownfield Housing Fund, with cash being allocated directly to those areas, analysis by the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) has found.
Overall £276m of the government’s £400m fund, announced in the March Budget, has been shared among seven city regions, six of which are in the North, according to the NHC.
In Budget documents from March the government said the fund is “for pro-development councils and ambitious mayoral combined authorities with the aim of creating more homes by bringing more brownfield land into development”.
The money will also be directly allocated to these regions rather than forcing them to engage in a bidding process.
The areas that benefited from the fund include:
- Greater Manchester Combined Authority – £80m
- Liverpool City Region – £45m
- North of Tyne Combined Authority – £24m
- Sheffield City Region – £40m
- Tees Valley Combined Authority – £19m
- West Yorkshire Combined Authority – £67m
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A further £84m of the fund will go to the West Midlands Combined Authority, while £40m will be held over for a competitive element, open to the same city regions and expected to be concluded quickly, the NHC said.
Tracy Harrison, chief executive of the NHC, said: “This is really significant news for the North – both in terms of the fund’s focus on brownfield land challenges and the way the fund has been allocated directly to localities.
“We will be exploring with members the potential for further funding of this type, including in parts of the North which don’t currently benefit from combined authority arrangements.”
Jamie Driscoll, mayor of the North of Tyne, said: “The North of Tyne has a wealth of underutilised brownfield land that is ripe for development. These sites will allow us to meet the broad range of housing needs that exist across the North of Tyne and help us to revitalise and sustain our construction sector, ensuring that good, skilled jobs remain in our area.”
