The Government has announced 30 Starter Home Land Fund partnerships with local authorities across England, with the aim of delivering at least 30,000 starter homes by 2020. Construction is due to start this year on the first wave of discounted homes aimed at young people aged between 23 and 40 trying to get on to the property ladder. These properties will see selling prices discounted by at least 20% on the market rate. Further, prices will be capped at £250,000 in England and £450,000 in London.
The £1.2 billion Starter Home Land Fund was first launched in March 2016. Whilst DCLG received bids from 120 local authorities, the 30 successful authorities have now been announced:
- Blackburn with Darwen Council
- Blackpool Council
- Bristol City Council
- Central Bedfordshire Council
- Cheshire West and Chester Council
- Chesterfield Borough Council
- Chichester District Council
- City of Lincoln
- Ebbsfleet Development Corporation
- Fareham Borough Council
- Gloucester City Council
- Greater Manchester Combined Authority (Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan)
- Lincolnshire County Council
- Liverpool City Council (in association with Sefton, Knowsley, Halton, Wirral, St. Helens)
- Luton Borough Council
- Mid Sussex District Council
- Middlesbrough Council
- North Somerset Council
- Northumberland County Council
- Pendle Borough Council
- Plymouth City Council
- Rotherham Metropolitan Council
- Rushmoor Borough Council
- Sheffield City Council
- South Kestevan District Council
- South Ribble Borough Council (in association with Preston City Council and Lancashire County Council)
- South Somerset District Council
- Stoke-on-Trent City Council
- West Somerset Council (in association with Taunton Deane Borough Council, Sedgemoor District Council)
- Worthing Council
Housing Minister Gavin Barwell MP welcomed the new partnerships, saying:
‘‘This Government is committed to building starter homes to help young first-time buyers get on the housing ladder. This first wave of partnerships shows the strong local interest to build thousands of starter homes on hundreds of brownfield sites in the coming years.”
The Government has clearly stated that it is committed to boosting the number of homes that are built in the UK each year in a bid to meet demand. In reality the country needs to build around 100,000 more properties each year just to keep pace with current demand.
Whilst the new Starter Home Land Fund partnerships benefit from a substantial fund to assist them, they only have three years to turn around brownfield sites in order to deliver at least 30,000 new homes in the next 3 years. This will be somewhat of a tall order based on current delivery rates and whilst welcomed by many sectors, still does not meet the level of demand experienced in the marketplace. We also wait to understand how starter homes will relate to affordable housing targets in the authorities identified.
For more information please contact:
Suzanne Scott, FoddyConsult
