The Government has lowered the threshold for the number of homes required to apply for a grant under the ‘Get Britain Building’ programme. The programme provides loans or equity investment to those developers whose house building schemes have received planning permission but have stalled due to a lack of finance.
Previously, house builders bidding for funds had to have plans for at least 25 homes on their development sites. The threshold has now been lowered to 15 in order to help smaller firms bid for financial support, although larger developers can still bid. There are certain provisos:
1. Developers can only receive loans and equity-risk sharing investment;
2. Development work must begin by 31 March 2013, with all homes completed by 31 March 2015; and
3. All bidding for funds must be made by 25 July 2012.
Full details of the ‘Get Britain Building’ programme are here.