A new £10m fund to boost London councils’ housing and planning teams has been launched by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.
According to the Mayor, over the last eight years central Government cuts have seen council budgets for planning and development fall by 50 per cent in London. He believes this has held back housing growth, and particularly plans to build new council homes.
Sadiq’s new Homebuilding Capacity Fund is professed to allow councils to bid for up to £750,000 each to boost their housing and planning teams. This could include hiring new staff to lead council housebuilding projects and develop new masterplans.
Khan explained:
“Despite wanting to do far more, councils have been hamstrung by swingeing cuts from Government for far too long. My new Homebuilding Capacity Fund won’t reverse those cuts, but it will help ambitious councils to enhance their capacity to deliver large-scale new-build programmes.
“I am able to do this thanks to the business rates devolution deal between the capital and central Government – giving us more control to spend more money on the things that matter most to Londoners.”
The Homebuilding Capacity Fund is being funded through the Business Rates Retention Pilot announced at last year’s Autumn Budget. This sees the capital retain 100 per cent of any increase in business rate receipts above the Government’s baseline during the financial year 2018/2019.