Small Sites for Small Builders: site release fund

Funding is drawn down in two stages:

• 50 per cent in advance of work being carried out, when funding has been granted
• 50 per cent once site investigations, due diligence, and feasibility work has been completed and demonstrated.

These are the ‘payment milestones’ in OPS. The final grant will be released on evidence of achieving outcomes and delivering relevant outputs or reports with evidence uploaded to OPS. The payment milestones are set out below.

The GLA reserves the right to claw back funding where progress cannot be evidenced.

Funding is drawn down in two stages:

• 50 per cent in advance of work being carried out, when funding has been granted
• 50 per cent once site investigations, due diligence, and feasibility work has been completed and demonstrated.

These are the ‘payment milestones’ in OPS. The final grant will be released on evidence of achieving outcomes and delivering relevant outputs or reports with evidence uploaded to OPS. The payment milestones are set out below.

The GLA reserves the right to claw back funding where progress cannot be evidenced.

If capital / other delivery funds are identified to progress a project, the GLA expects the grant funding to be repaid. The GLA will be able to recycle the grant to unlock further small sites.

Grant repayment is conditional on the project being capitalised. There is likely to be variation in how this is interpreted by different organisations in relation to CIPFA guidance. On OPS, there will be a requirement for bidders to insert the definition of this trigger point locally and define the date by which this milestone is expected to be achieved. Providing a defined point of potential capitalisation is a mandatory part of the application process.

The grant provided is revenue funding, but the GLA will accept capital repayment.

Repayment is expected to be after funding has been drawn down in full but at a stage prior to start on site. Should this milestone not be reached the grant will not need to be repaid.

In order to demonstrate good strategic fit for the purposes of this funding offer,  sites should align with at least one of the following considerations:

• Small sites that have a strong likelihood of reaching delivery stage to maximise the chance that grant is repayable, and sites that can be accelerated towards delivery in the short term.
• The strategic nature of the site for the landowner, for example, a site might face a particular blocker to delivery that is replicated across land portfolio leading to enhanced ability to replicate lessons learnt across other sites.

There is no limit to how many sites can be applied for by a single public landowner or RP however each needs to be applied for in separate OPS projects to enable repayment triggers to be site specific.

Applications on GLA OPS must be for individual sites and cannot be bundled together under one submission.  

OPS requires bidders to input bespoke project milestones. Milestones with historical dates should be used to capture any evidence of progress at time of bidding. Milestones with future dates can be used to set out the milestones that will lead a project to delivery stage including site investigations, due diligence, feasibility, governance, planning and procurement requirements.

This will demonstrate how far progressed a site is towards delivery.   The GLA will undertake monitoring until the project is abandoned or reaches delivery and triggers repayment of grant.

• Project awarded funding [50 per cent of grant allocation].
• Due-diligence consultants appointed.
• Surveys required for the site.
• Completion of due diligence [50 per cent of grant allocation].
• Letter confirming final decision for site.
• Capitalisation of site [triggers repayment of grant].
• Site uploaded to the portal, unless otherwise agreed.

The programme actively seeks to support new sites for supported and specialist housing provision, diverse approaches to delivery partnerships for housing delivery and SMEs to benefit from these opportunities. Submissions may address any of these points in relationship to the EDI bid criteria.

For clarity, general needs housing is also supported, so bidders looking for support on site intended to support general needs housing are also invited to bid.

Proposals will be assessed by the GLA against the criteria and weightings outlined below.

Successful projects will be required to enter into a standard form of grant agreement with the GLA for delivery of projects supported by this fund.

The form of grant agreement is non-negotiable. Proposed milestones and outputs provided by organisations as part of their bids will be incorporated into funding contracts. In addition to formal reporting on GLA OPS, the grant recipients will commit to attending regular meetings with the GLA to report on the progress of the due diligence surveys and update on any emerging risks or issues.

If sites are progressed through capitalisation/direct delivery or disposal, GLA will monitor the planning application and outcome, the S106 agreement and the progress of build on site. The grant recipient will commit to providing this information when requested on a reasonable basis.

Know Your Customer (KYC) checks will be required prior to entering into grant funding agreements.

‘Know Your Customer’ checks ensure the GLA is dealing with genuine individuals and organisations and help identify suspicious behaviour or practices.

Depending on the level of grant awarded to a grant recipient there may be additional checks that comply with GLA’s guidance of Due Diligence principles.

Grant recipients must comply with all KYC requirements and other due diligence requirements that the GLA asks for.

Prior to entering into grant funding agreements the GLA is required to check whether you will have received subsidies which, when combined with the proposed Funding (but excluding subsidies given in compliance with the Subsidy Control Act 2022 other than under section 36 and/or section 38 of the Subsidy Control Act and/or Article 364(4) and Article 365(3) of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union, European Atomic Energy Community and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, exceeds the MFA threshold of £315,000 cumulated over this and the previous two financial years. 

Please note if you are part of a group of companies your declaration will need to relate to all subsidy or public funds received by all entities within that group for these purposes.