Homes England hands £70m to 8,500-home schemes

Homes England has handed out £70m to developers to kick-start the construction of 8,500 homes across two sites in Northamptonshire.

The government’s housing delivery agency has given the £70m loan to delivery partners Midtown Capital, Buccleuch Property and Long Harbour to develop the sites in Kettering and Wellingborough.

The Kettering scheme promises to deliver 5,500 homes when completed, and the first phase of the Wellingborough site will supply 3,000 homes.

The sites have a projected combined gross development value of £2.5bn over their lifetime, and are expected to generate up to 3,000 jobs as well schools and leisure and commercial space.

Sir Edward Lister, chair of Homes England, said the £70m loan would enable the two major housing projects to begin after many years of delays.

The loan will come from the agency’s Home Building Fund, which was increased to £4.5bn as part of chancellor Philip Hammond’s 2017 Budget and provides development and infrastructure finance to house builders.

The investment will be used to create roads, utilities and other works to enable the delivery of homes.

It is the second major funding deal by Homes England in the past seven days, after the agency confirmed that it had provided funding to support a £40m lease deal between a property fund and a local authority for a development that would deliver 379 affordable homes in Stoke.

Aldred Drummond, director at Long Harbour, added: “The delivery partners have combined our respective expertise in planning, development, construction and finance to optimise the potential of these sites, providing much-needed homes and jobs in this superbly connected location.”

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