DLUHC withdraws £540million of infrastructure funding due to deliver 42,000 homes

The DLUHC has confirmed that it has withdrawn £538.8million of funding for infrastructure projects which would have delivered more than 42,000 homes.
A total of 16 projects have had their funding cancelled via the Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) due to viability concerns, according to the DLUHC.
The HIF was created in 2017, making £4.2billion available to local authorities for key infrastructure that would facilitate new housing developments. As of today, only 31% of the fund has been spent.
DLUHC official Sarah Healey listed the cancelled funds in a letter to Clive Betts MP, the chair of the levelling up scrutiny committee. Ms Healey said that the projects had their funding removed as “they proved not to be deliverable within the parameters” of the programme, or the projects had been withdrawn by the local authority.
The two largest funding agreements withdrawn were £170million given to Medway Council for a scheme that would have delivered over 10,000 homes in Hoo St Werburgh, and a £140million provided to Lancashire Council which would have delivered close to 10,000 homes in its South Lancaster Growth Catalyst scheme.
Wiltshire and Thurrock Councils both saw just over £75million of funding cancelled, while smaller marginal viability allocations were also cancelled for Breckland Council and Tyne and Wear Council.
Ms Healey’s letter stated that some “local authorities are finding that their projects can be delivered without public money”. She continued to say that in cases where the councils cannot deliver their projects without the fund, Homes England will explore other options and work “closely with the council and potential developers to develop realistic proposals that will lead to regeneration”.
Last month, the Housing Infrastructure Fund came under fire after it came to light that only a third of the fund had been allocated over the six years it has been available. The government also confirmed that it had reduced the delivery target of the fund from 340,000 to 270,000, and that work had started on fewer than one in 10 of the homes the fund promised to deliver.
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