As part of a series of measures just released by Housing Minister Caroline Flint, local authorities in the East Midlands will receive £10.8million in 2008/09 via the Housing and Planning Delivery Grant (HPDG) and Gainsborough has been confirmed as a New Growth Point.
Housing and Planning Delivery Grant is designed to encourage local authorities to speed up and improve the delivery of housing and plan development. Of the £98.3million on offer in 2008/09, East Midlands authorities will receive £10.8million.
In welcoming the announcement of the HPDG awards, the Regional Minister said:
“As part of our commitment to supporting housing growth over the three years of the current spending review period, the government will provide £510million nationally via HPDG to encourage local authorities to step up their efforts on housing and planning.
“I am really pleased to see that East Midlands authorities have been awarded £10.8million of the £98.3million on offer in this first year of the new grant. This sum represents a real cash boost for authorities and recognises the valuable work they have been doing in this field.”
Last week, Gainsborough became the latest New Growth Point in the East Midlands. More than 3,300 additional homes than previously planned will be built in the area. Responding to this announcement, the Regional Minister said:
“It is great news that Gainsborough has been accepted as a New Growth Point and I would like to congratulate all the local partners who have worked together to bring this about. We now have five New Growth Points in the region plus a Growth Area. This represents very a significant achievement and is a huge boost to the long term growth ambitions of the East Midlands.
“I know that the credit crunch is creating significant challenges at the moment, but the long term need to provide more houses in the East Midlands has not gone away. The cash awarded to our local authorities under HPDG and the Gainsborough New Growth Point have the potential to help see us through some of these current difficulties and work towards the longer term stability and fairness of the region’s housing market.”
