The membership organisation for northern housing providers has said that brownfield funding should be devolved and ‘more flexible’
Funding should be fully devolved to combined authorities in the North to facilitate the delivery of 320,000 new brownfield homes in the region, the Northern Housing Consortium has urged.
New research conducted and funded by the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) calls for a £4.2bn government funding package over ten years to prepare brownfield sites for these new homes.
The current Brownfield Housing Fund is meant to support 24,000 new homes, but the NHC’s research suggests that “Whitehall red tape is stifling the effectiveness of this fund”.
The £400m Brownfield Housing Fund was launched by then chancellor Rishi Sunak in the 2020 spring Budget “for ambitious mayors […] to build on brownfield sites”.
The report adds that some of the North’s brownfield sites are not eligible for funding, due to being located in areas with lower land values.
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The NHC said that current government value-for-money rules mean that “areas most in need of regeneration are losing out”.
It added that the Brownfield Housing Fund (BHF) is “hamstrung by relatively short, strict deadlines”. For example, the NHC points out that the requirement for land remediation to be complete by March 2025 means that larger projects with more complex remediation requirements cannot progress.
The body has called for funding to be fully devolved, stating in its Brownfield First report that the BHF is “a fund delegated to the MCAs [Mayoral Combined Authorities], rather than a genuine act of devolution”.
The NHC has also said that for northern housing providers to remediate land and build these homes, increased capacity in local government and combined authorities, including in planning is also needed.
The report noted that while the government has said they will increase planning capacity to help local government and combined authorities plan a strategic pipeline of brownfield projects, “more needs to be done”.
Northern Housing Consortium chief executive Tracy Harrison said: “There is a massive opportunity across the North to unlock land for up to 320,000 homes, helping provide much-needed homes, regenerate communities and rebalance the economy away from London and the South East. But the current funding rules don’t work.”
She added: “Central government requirements mean some of the most deprived areas in need of regeneration are not being developed to provide much-needed homes.
“Brownfield Funding should be further devolved to give local government and combined authorities the flexibility to use it where it’s needed most.
“The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has started to review brownfield funding and the value-for-money appraisal process for housing and land investment.
“We are keen to work with the Government to deliver changes which will help our members regenerate communities and unleash the benefits of brownfield-first development.”
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