Scheme will provide £500m in subsidies to providers developing brownfield sites in Greater Manchester

A body within the Competition and Markets Authority has accepted a referral to look into the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s proposed brownfield housing subsidy scheme.

The Subsidy Advice Unit (SAU), which is part of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will produce a report providing an evaluation of GMCA’s assessment of whether the scheme complies with subsidy control requirements.

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The requirements are designed to ensure subsidies do not distort competition or trade or create an unfair advantage for certain businesses.

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s (GMCA) Brownfield Housing subsidy scheme will provide up to £500m in subsidies towards the costs of delivering homes on brownfield sites.

GMCA anticipates that the subsidy scheme will support the delivery of at least 10,000 new housing units including affordable housing such as shared ownership and social rent homes by summer 2029.

The scheme will come into effect from this summer.

The scheme will be funded with £135m from the Brownfield Housing Fund, which was created at the Spring Budget 2020, by the then chancellor Rishi Sunak.

A further £150m will come from a Brownfield Infrastructure and Land Funding agreement with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

It is expected that the remaining £215m will come from potential future funding allocations.

>> See also: Northern Housing Consortium says 320,000 new homes could be delivered on brownfield land

>> See also: WMCA and Homes England agree deal to deliver stalled brownfield sites in £400m plan

The funding is expected to be allocated to housing developers, other private sector entities involved in housing delivery, registered social housing providers, local authorities, and other public sector organisations.

Individual awards under this scheme will be capped at the identified viability gap, with no subsidies exceeding £20m.

The SAU has said the scheme is considered “a subsidy scheme of particular interest” as it may award individual subsidies that either exceed £10m or will exceed £10m when combined with other public subsidies.

This indicates that the scheme has been flagged for a detailed review due to the size of the proposed subsidies by GMCA.

SAU will complete a report on the GMCA’s brownfield housing scheme within 30 working days and is scheduled for publication on 2 September.

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