With the largest council house building programme for nearly two decades already underway, Housing Minister John Healey has today doubled Government cash for new council homes.73 councils covering every region of England will share an extra £122.6 million.
Councils will match this second round Government grant bringing investment in this round to £246m, and total public investment in the programme as a whole to over £500m to build more than 4,000 new council homes for 8,000 people.

In a clear break with council houses of the past, John Healey also confirmed that many will be new family homes, whilst all will be ‘highly’ energy efficient and add to the mixed make-up of local neighbourhoods.

Mr Healey has required all councils receiving Government funds to offer apprenticeship and local job recruitment schemes, creating 7,500 jobs and around 100 new apprenticeship places.

Eighty-six councils bid for the second round of house building with projects totalling more than double the funds earmarked.

Today’s move is part of a huge government investment in building new affordable rented homes.This year’s Government spending will be the largest for affordable housing for at least two decades.

On a visit to the Thames View Estate in Barking to launch the extra funding, John Healey said:”Councils have shown they’re ready and willing to build new homes, so I’m ready to back them. More affordable homes for rent are needed in every part of the country. We’re using the power of public investment to help economic growth by building the homes we need and creating jobs and skills for the future. And we must get the most for every taxpayer’s pound, so I am requiring all councils getting this government money to offer new jobs and apprenticeships to local people.Forty per cent of the homes being built will be three and four-bedroom family homes which are designed to high energy efficiency standards and will often be built alongside existing private housing.”

Projects include:

• Durham County Council, which is receiving nearly £3.5million to build 67 new homes on two sites in Crook. This will include 50 new flats and bungalows and flats for older people, replacing an outdated sheltered accommodation scheme;
• Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, which is receiving £1.4million to build 26 new houses on a brownfield site. The scheme will comprise a mix of two, three and four-bedroomed houses, designed to achieve Code for Sustainable Homes Level Four;
• Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, receiving £1.2million to build 22 homes at Brierley Hill. Six of the properties will be provided for local people with learning disabilities;
• Reading Borough Council, which will use the £3.1million funding to convert a former school site into 40 one- and two-bedroomed flats for the elderly and those with other support needs. Work will begin in May.

Today’s funding sits alongside other action John Healey has already announced to boost council housing, including plans to dismantle the current council housing finance system and reforms to give councils more leeway to manage their waiting lists in response to local pressures.

Conservative Shadow Housing Minister, Grant Shapps said: “Yet another re-announcement by the Government doesn’t avoid the stark truth – they have utterly failed to build the homes this country needs.

“In terms of social housing they have built fewer homes than under either of the two previous Conservative Governments.

“With the social housing waiting list soaring to a huge 1.8 million families, their top-down, Whitehall-driven targets have failed the most vulnerable people in our society.”