Tens of thousands of homes will be built on derelict sites as part of a near-£2billion drive by Rishi Sunak to target brownfield land instead of the countryside for housing.
The Chancellor will announce the fund to transform previously developed land equivalent to 2,000 football pitches in Wednesday’s Budget.
In addition, he will unveil plans to spend millions on creating more than 100 ‘pocket parks’ in towns and cities across the country.
Tens of thousands of homes will be built on derelict sites as part of a near-£2billion drive by Rishi Sunak to target brownfield land instead of the countryside for housing
The Budget will focus on ‘looking to the future and building a stronger economy for the British people’, Mr Sunak said last night.
In his Spending Review, he will allocate the money available for each Whitehall department over the next three year.
A £1.8billion fund to turn brownfield land into homes will be part of the settlement for Michael Gove’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
As part of the scheme, approximately 160,000 homes will be built in England.
The money will not only be used for preparing sites for development but also to build transport links, schools, and public spaces that will allow them to become thriving communities.
The Chancellor will announce the fund to transform previously developed land equivalent to 2,000 football pitches in Wednesday’s Budget
About £300million will be spent by local authorities and regional mayors.
Alongside this, the Chancellor will announce a £9million Levelling Up Parks Fund that will enable local authorities to transform more than 100 neglected urban spaces into ‘pocket parks’ roughly the size of a tennis court.
These green spaces aim to improve the mental and physical health of communities by providing safe places for children to play and a place for adults to relax.
More than 2.5million people live in the UK within a ten minute walk of a green space.
Mr Sunak said last night: ‘We are investing in better quality, safer, greener and more affordable homes to create thriving places where people want to live.
‘One of my favourite pastimes is to go for walks in the park with my family, and I want to make sure everyone has green space on their doorstep to enjoy too.
‘Transforming our unloved and neglected urban spaces will help protect our cherished countryside and green spaces, while improving the physical and mental health of our communities.’
Mr Sunak will also confirm a previously announced £11.5billion pot for affordable housing to provide another 180,000 homes, some of which will go on brownfield sites.
The Government targets 300,000 homes per year by the mid 2020s. Last year’s construction of 244,000 homes was the highest since 1987.
At the Tory party conference earlier this month, Mr Gove signalled a huge shift on planning policy as he vowed to focus housebuilding efforts on ‘neglected brownfield sites’.
A £1.8billion fund to turn brownfield land into homes will be part of the settlement for Michael Gove’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
In an effort to placate Tory MPs, he has also promised to review how a planned shakeup of housebuilding rules could be improved.
The Chancellor faces a number of challenges as he prepares his Budget, not least a warning from the Bank of England’s new chief economist that inflation could rise above 5 per cent.
Mr Sunak said yesterday that it would ‘certainly feed into my thinking about what the right approach to the country is’.
He also confirmed that public sector workers would find out on Wednesday whether they will be receiving a pay raise.
Despite raising national insurance to pay for social care, Mr Sunak said he wanted to be a tax-cutting chancellor – although no major giveaways are expected on Wednesday.
The Daily Mail revealed last week that the Chancellor will use the Budget to slap a tax of between 3 and 5 per cent on the profits of Britain’s biggest housebuilders to recoup some of the costs of fixing the cladding scandal – marking a victory for our campaign on the issue.