The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, today announced a vital boost for the capital’s construction industry after he revealed a £103 million funding package to kick-start building projects across London's boroughs.
As part of the government’s Get Britain Building programme, the funding has the potential to create more than 2,700 homes and thousands of jobs in Barnet, Brent, Bromley, Enfield, Hackney, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Lewisham, Wandsworth, Southwark, Croydon and Haringey.
Get Britain Building is intended to unlock stalled sites with planning permission to support construction and provide new homes for Londoners. Its aim is to address difficulties in accessing development finance faced by some housebuilders and to help bring forward marginal sites by sharing the risks involved.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “This programme offers us a fantastic opportunity to accelerate the delivery of desperately needed new homes and provide a real boost for jobs in the construction industry. As well as driving economic growth these sites have all been identified as having the potential to create stronger and thriving communities to live in.”
Submitted bids were assessed by the Homes and Communities Agency, which was looking at those projects which offered the best value for money and the most likely to be delivered. The shortlisted schemes will now be invited to enter a due diligence process before contracts are signed.The current shortlist, totalling £103 million, builds on the first sites announced under a special commissioning phase in February. Grahame Park in Barnet, where a total of 3,000 new homes are being built, featured in the initial list of sites and secured £5 million, bringing total programme funding to £108 million.
Notes to editors
- The full list of shortlisted schemes and more information on the programme is available from the HCA website: http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/get-britain-building.
- For more information visit: http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/newsevent
- From April 2012 the Homes and Communities Agency’s London functions will be devolved to the GLA. All existing HCA London staff will transfer into the GLA’s new Housing and Land Directorate together with staff managing the London Development Agency’s land and property portfolio and the GLA’s existing Housing Unit.