The scheme aims to support the development of 10,000 new homes by 2025
The Government has announced an additional £300 million in funding for the Housing Growth Partnership (HGP) which aims to build 10,000 new homes by 2025.
HGP announced yesterday that a new £300 million equity funding programme provided by Homes England and Lloyds Banking Group would help to bridge the homebuilder funding gap and support the Government in its pledge to resolve the housing crisis in the UK.
Dubbed HGP II, the new fund builds on the success of the first HGP initiative and will support a wider range of housing tenures to meet the UK’s diverse and growing housing demands. The scheme aims to support the development of 10,000 new homes by 2025.
The fund, provided via a split of £180 million from Lloyds Banking Group and £120 million from Homes England, will enable SME and regional developers to build more homes across the UK and grow their businesses.
Developers building between 5 and 500 units per year will be eligible for support and the new fund will enable investment into larger development projects than it has done previously, up to the value of £75 million.
It will offer support for the delivery of a wider range of housing projects including Build to Rent, Regeneration and Retirement Living. The partnership will also look to prioritise projects with a greater sustainability focus, as well as those using modern methods of construction and other evolutionary construction methods.
Commenting on the announcement, Housing Minister RT Hon Christopher Pincher MP said: A thriving SME sector is crucial to our house building targets and ambitions. This significant amount of funding will help smaller and regional housebuilders by providing them with the financial support necessary to deliver much needed new homes.
It is a top priority of this Government to increase housing supply so hard-working people can be helped into home ownership, he added.
Through the scheme HGP will also develop its Regional Growth Initiative by committing a higher level of dedicated equity support to regional developers over a defined period, to allow them to invest in their businesses and target larger and more strategic sites.
Vic Hepburn, CEO of Housing Growth Partnership, commented on the introduction of the Regional Growth Initiative, saying that it will allow the Housing Growth Partnership to support the most ambitious housebuilders in a more substantial way with additional financial and strategic support.