In the Budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt confirmed that, following on from £188m set aside for housing projects in Sheffield, Blackpool and Liverpool, an additional £240m would be allocated to housing projects in London.
This will build almost 8,000 homes in Barking and Canary Wharf, and transform Canary Wharf into a “new hub for life science companies”, Hunt noted.
He continued on to say that it would launch a £20m “community-led housing scheme” that would support local community development.
This will build up to 3,000 new homes and “improve the capacity of local community groups to deliver housing”, the Budget report said.
The report noted that the government was laying out its “ambitious vision” to “unlock 20,000 homes” in Leeds and was establishing a “Euston Housing Delivery Group” with £4m to deliver 10,000 homes in London.
Further funding for nutrient neutrality
Within the Budget report, it was confirmed that the government is launching round two of the Local Nutrient Mitigation Fund.
In the Spring Budget last year, the Department for Levelling Up opened a call for evidence from local planning authorities on nutrient neutrality arrangements and said funding would be provided for mitigation schemes.
Nutrient neutrality is when new residential developments can only be built if the nutrient load, such as additional phosphates and nitrates, created through additional wastewater from a development is mitigated. It became a requirement in March 2022 in and around designated protected areas.
Last year, in the Budget report, it was estimated that high levels of nutrient pollution were stalling housing delivery in around 74 local planning authorities.
In this year’s Budget report, the government said that the second phase of the fund would “support delivery of 30,000 homes by 2030 that would otherwise be stalled due to high levels of nutrient pollution”.
It continued: “To boost capacity in the planning system, the government is committing £3m to match industry-led funding for a skills and education programme to attract more people to take up roles as local planners in planning authorities.”
