Three housing schemes in Brighton and Hove have been given an £820,000 boost by the government as part of a push to get councils building new homes again.
The schemes are in Kensington Street, in the North Laine area of Brighton, where work started this week, as well as Selsfield Drive, Moulsecoomb, and Victoria Road, Portslade.
The three awards – from the £45 million Land Release Fund – come a fortnight after ministers put up £15 million towards housing planned for the King Alfred site on Hove seafront.
Brighton and Hove City Council will receive £144,000 towards the Kensington Street scheme where 12 homes are being built on the site of a couple of dozen former parking spaces.
The Selsfield Drive scheme involves building up to 30 homes on the site of an old housing office.
The £335,000 from the government will go towards the cost of diverting a main sewer on the site and carrying out other vital work on or near the site.
The Victoria Road scheme was awarded £340,000 by the government’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The ministry is targeting schemes on council-owned land.
All three Brighton and Hove schemes are part of the council’s New Homes for Neighbourhoods programme. The goal is to build 500 homes, often on challenging or constrained sites.
The housing ministry said: “A £6.1 million cash injection into key community projects will help kick-start the building of 762 of new homes across London and the south east of England.
“As part of the government’s drive to get Britain building homes again, a total of 12 projects from Lambeth to Brighton will receive funding.
“To support local councils across the country to meet their ambition to unlock enough of land they own for at least 160,000 homes by 2020, they will be able to use the Land Release Fund money to combat barriers which would otherwise make land unusable for development.
“The projects – which aim to support building strong communities – include a range of necessary works such as decontaminating land, strengthening retaining walls and improving infrastructure, as well as schemes that will significantly improve quality of life such as relocating schools to better premises.
“This move comes two weeks after projects set to benefit from the first wave of funding from the £5 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund were announced, helping to get up to 200,000 homes off the ground through investment in local housing projects.
“This included the £335 million investment to help unlock up to 68,000 new homes in London and the south east – part of the Government’s comprehensive strategy of planning reform and targeted investment to build 300,000 homes a year.
Housing and Planning Minister Dominic Raab said: “We are investing £6.1 million across London and the south east to build roads and provide utilities so councils can release the land to get up to 762 new homes built.
“It’s part of our strategy to build the homes Britain needs and carry local communities with us.
“We’re determined to make buying or renting more affordable for young families and those on low or middle incomes.”
