Money from the Homebuilding Capacity Fund would help to “plug the gap” caused by central government cuts, said mayor Sadiq Khan
The mayor of London has announced plans to share out £10m among most of the capital’s local authorities to strengthen their planning and housing teams and speed up the delivery of new council homes.
Sadiq Khan said the money from the Homebuilding Capacity Fund would help to “plug the gap” caused by central government cuts to council budgets for planning and development activities.
Thirty councils will receive up to £650,000 each, which can be spent on delivering more council homes, more “genuinely affordable homes” and homes for social rent on small sites, proactive masterplans in parts of the capital that have “significant growth potential” and other planning activities.
The mayor wants the cash to boost his £1bn scheme agreed last year to start building 11,000 new council homes for social rent by 2022.
Khan said local authorities had seen their budgets slashed through government cuts, which had “hit their services across the board and has severely hampered their ambitions to build more affordable homes.
“This funding won’t reverse all those cuts, but it will help councils boost their teams to go much further than they otherwise could.
“We are going as far as we can, and it is now imperative for the government to give us significantly more investment and greater powers so we can build all the homes Londoners need,” Khan added.
Of the capital’s 32 councils Bromley didn’t bid for any funding, while Hillingdon and Richmond were not successful in getting an allocation for the proposals they submitted.
A spokesperson said there had been a “huge appetite from councils, with bids received for more than twice the amount of funding available.
“All proposals went through a vigorous assessment and moderation process in line with the criteria set out in the prospectus.”
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