Housing budget earmarked for transport links

13 July 2007

The Government has been advised to divert some of the South East’s housing budget to a ‘regional infrastructure fund’ for transport links needed to help get housing projects off the ground.

The South East Regional Housing Board has recommended that the Department for Communities and Local Government invests £30m of its £1.3bn three-year budget ‘to finance infrastructure-required projects’.

The initial investment would be recovered at a later date, the Assembly says, once ‘developer contributions have been received via the planning system’. Local planning authorities have long been frustrated at the lack of upfront funding for transport needed to ensure new homes are not unsustainable dormitories. The recommendation is a bold one, given the need for affordable homes.

The Assembly ‘evidence base clearly shows’ the £1.3bn ‘will not be enough to deliver the amount of affordable housing identified in the South East plan’. The biggest chunk of the funding, £1.1bn, would be used to build 10,550 new affordable homes annually, for three years.

But £30m would also be invested in a ‘brownfield land assembly company’ charged with bringing forward a portfolio of surplus brownfield land for housing.

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Housing budget earmarked for transport links

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