31 Jul 2014, 5:03 pm
The DCLG announced in June that it would set up a 'site delivery fund' to provide short-term support to local authorities to assist with issues delaying the start of work on sites for which development has been agreed.
Housing and planning minister Brandon Lewis launched a document earlier this week inviting local authorities to apply for a share of the funding, which he said will help get work started "on as many as 85 sites" by speeding up processes such as the agreement of section 106 agreements and the discharge of planning conditions.
According to the invitation to bid (15-page / 118 KB PDF), the bidding process is open to all local authorities that deal with applications for housing and funding will be made available in the form of grants of "around £50,000 per authority". A total of £3m is available for the two years from 2014 to 2016, but a maximum of £1.5m will be available in 2015-2016 to ensure that funding is used quickly to bring development forward, it said.
Priority will be given to bids from authorities which have recently permitted large numbers of applications for major residential development, particularly where authorities can demonstrate how funding would enable prompt delivery of full planning consents, the document said.
Local authorities can submit bids electronically using an online application form until 31 August.
