Housing Minister, Mark Prisk, announced yesterday that the New Homes Bonus would be shared amongst 353 councils as a reward for delivery of 142,000 new homes. The funding is based on the number of new homes which have been occupied in the last year, and is calculated on the amount of extra council tax revenue raised by the councils for new build homes, conversions and long-term empty homes being brought back into use.
The indicative budgets show the London Borough of Tower Hamlets as receiving the greatest allocation of funding. The inner London borough will receive an additional New Homes Bonus of £5,961,042 next year, or £16,070,851 when ongoing payments for the first two years of the scheme are included. Tower Hamlets had a net addition of 3,372 new homes and 133 empty homes brought back into use for the period October 2011 to October 2012.
Other London boroughs receiving the some of the highest amounts of funding are Hackney (receiving an additional New Homes Bonus next year of £4,486,526), Islington (receiving £3,514,099), Barnet (£3,050,934), and Southwark (£2,879,365). The lowest allocations in London were £135,646 to the City of London and £210,633 to Kensington and Chelsea. Outside of London the highest allocations are to Cornwall UA (£3,428,410), Wiltshire UA (£3,006,529) and Birmingham Council (£2,853,797). Bristol has been allocated £2,397,466 and Leeds has been allocated £2,503,532.
