The funding through the new homes bonus scheme will be allocated in 2013-14, will also bring 13,000 long-term empty properties back into use and will deliver 58,000 affordable homes. Since it’s launch in April 2011, councils have received £1.3bn from the scheme.
Housing minister Mark Prisk said: ‘For years, developers found themselves at loggerheads with communities unconvinced that their plans for growth would benefit them. But the New Homes Bonus is turning this around.
‘The £1.3bn paid out to councils to date has meant that now local people are able to see the rewards of new developments in their area – paving the way for thousands of much-needed, locally-supported homes to be delivered across the country.’
North Tyneside Council has already used the additional funding towards a £3.1m revamp of a library in the heart of North Shields. Warwick Council used its share of the funding to enter into a 10-year partnership with Waterloo Housing Group to deliver new affordable homes. All bonus payments generated by the building scheme will be recycled back into additional developments.