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Next month will see the start of a bidding process for local house builders to access a slice of £525m available funding to get small housing schemes off the ground.
The Builders Finance Fund, which the Government hopes will deliver 15,000 homes, aims to speed up “shovel-ready” housing developments of between 15 and 250 homes.
The funding scheme was announced in the last Budget to help smaller builders who have struggled to raise finance for stalled but viable sites.
Funding is being made available on the basis that it will be repaid and is expected to support 15,000 jobs in construction and sustain hundreds of British businesses.
Cash will be released over two years from 2015 to 2016 through to 2016 to 2017 and will be operated as an open competition.
Housing Minister Kris Hopkins said the government wanted smaller housing schemes to play a bigger role in boosting the supply of new homes.
He said: “This government has got Britain building again, and created thousands of jobs in the construction sector. But it has been harder for smaller schemes to come back from the crash of 2008 and, as part of our long-term economic plan, we want them to have a bigger role in building homes for the housing market.
“This funding will get workers back on site, support 15,000 jobs across the construction industry, and build thousands of new homes for communities up and down the country.”
A £50m Local Growth Fund is also being targeted at kick-starting stalled housing projects of between 250 and 1,499 homes.
