Government to directly build affordable homes

The Prime Minister David Cameron is to announce today that the government is to directly commission the building of thousands of new affordable housing.

In what the government is describing as a “radical new policy shift”, the building of new housing on publicly owned land will be directly commissioned to allow better quality housing to be constructed more quickly.

Smaller companies currently unable to work on larger projects will be able to get involved on developments with planning permission already in place in an effort to fast track construction.

The move will see up to 13,000 new homes built on five publically owned sites in 2016, with up to 40% being available as affordable homes for first time buyers.

The pilot for the direct commissioning scheme will take place on five sites: Connaught Barracks in Dover; Northstowe in Cambridgeshire; Lower Graylingwell in Chichester; Daedelus on Waterfront in Gosport and Old Oak Common in north west London

The government will also announce today a £1.2Bn starter home fund to prepare brownfield sites for the building of new housing. It is envisaged the fund will fast-track least 30,000 new starter homes and up to 30,000 market homes on 500 new sites by 2020 – helping deliver the commitment to create 200,000 starter homes over the next five years.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: “This government was elected to deliver security and opportunity – whatever stage of life you’re at. Nothing is more important to achieving that than ensuring hard-working people can buy affordable homes.

“Today’s package signals a huge shift in government policy. Nothing like this has been done on this scale in three decades – government rolling its sleeves up and directly getting homes built.

“Backed up with a further £1.2Bn to get homes built on brownfield sites, it shows we will do everything we can to get Britain building and let more people have the security that comes with a home of their own.”

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