Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

DCLG announces housing projects shortlisted for £850m infrastructure funding

18 Aug 2014, 5:09 pm

The Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has announced a shortlist of 36 projects that could receive a share of £850 million in government infrastructure loans to accelerate the delivery of large-scale housing projects.

In its 2013 autumn statement, the UK government announced a £1 billion fund to provide upfront capital towards infrastructure improvements required to enable the delivery of housing schemes of 1,500 or more homes. The Homes and Communities Agency invited private sector bidders to submit expressions of interest in receiving funding by 30 May 2014, and secretary of state for communities and local government Eric Pickles announced the first 36 projects to be shortlisted last week.

Among the shortlisted projects (21 KB MS Excel spreadsheet) were developer Knight Dragon's 10,000-home redevelopment of the Greenwich Peninsula in south-east London, Canary Wharf Group's 3,000-home Wood Wharf development and the Acton Gardens development in Ealing, which proposed 2,500 homes.

Selected projects outside London included Halsbury Homes' 5,700-home Whitfield development in Dover, A2Dominion Developments' 5,500-home development at North West Bicester and a 6,200-home sustainable urban extension proposed for the former Rugby Radio Station site in Warwickshire.

The shortlisted projects will undergo an initial due diligence process (6-page / 242 KB PDF), confirming the identities and creditworthiness of the parties listed in the investment proposals and analysing the funding, security and repayment arrangements proposed. Projects successfully passing the initial stage of due diligence will pass to a more detailed phase.

Those projects passing the due diligence process will receive a share of £850 million in long term loans, with interest, between 2015 and 2020. Further rounds of bidding are proposed annually until 2018.

Pickles said in a statement: "We are supporting locally-led development, and this £1bn programme will help unlock or accelerate over 200,000 new homes across the country. This is part of our wider package of housing programmes to support home ownership, increase investment in the private rented sector and further increase housebuilding".

The government expects the initial due diligence process to be completed by the end of September.