The Autumn Budget included fresh spending pledges on housing from the Chancellor, with £1.8bn set aside to assist housing supply via land regeneration.
Community focus
The additional funds are aimed at delivering 160,000 new homes and will be divided into two parts:
- £300m for councils and combined authorities to help them unlock smaller brownfield sites for housing “and improve communities in line with their priorities”
- £1.5bn to “regenerate under-used land and deliver transport links and community facilities.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said, “We are investing in better quality, safer, greener and more affordable homes to create thriving places where people want to live. Transforming our unloved and neglected urban spaces will help protect our cherished countryside and green spaces, while improving the physical and mental health of our communities.”
More promises
As well as the headline pledge, the Budget also reconfirmed £11.5bn through the Affordable Homes Programme (2021-26), promised an additional £65m investment to improve the planning regime through a new digital system, and confirmed more than £5bn to remove unsafe cladding from the highest-risk buildings.