The government has announced New Homes Bonus grant allocations worth a total of £1.5bn for 2016/17.
The New Homes Bonus currently rewards councils with a payment equivalent to six years’ council tax for each additional new home they add to their housing stock.
The allocations are set to be the last based on six years of council tax. The government has proposed reducing this to four years from 2017/18. It has also suggested changing the scheme so that payments are reduced if planning permission for new homes is granted on appeal and that councils without a Local Plan do not receive any bonus.
The move was first announced by George Osborne in last November’s Spending Review as part of a plan to save £800m.
The changes, which the government consulted on earlier this year but has yet to finalise, have been criticised by councils, which have warned it will make it more difficult for them to build new homes.
Here is the list from Inside Hosuing:
| LARGEST NEW HOMES BONUS ALLOCATIONS 2016/17 | |
|---|---|
| Tower Hamlets | £28.6m |
| Birmingham | £21.1m |
| Cornwall | £19.6m |
| Hackney | £18.0m |
| Wiltshire | £17.9m |
| Leeds | £17.1m |
| Southwark | £16.3m |
| Islington | £15.3m |
| Lambeth | £14.0m |
| Bristol | £13.6m |
| Greenwich | £13.3m |
| Westminster | £13.2m |
| Manchester | £13.1m |
| Wandsworth | £13.0m |
| Newham | £12.7m |
| Barnet | £12.4m |
| Milton Keynes | £12.3m |
| Croydon | £11.8m |
| Central Beds | £11.7m |
| Bradford | £11.2m |