HCA calls time on key housebuilding programmes

The Homes and Communities Agency has confirmed that it is to bring two key housebuilding programmes to an end.

A spokeswoman for the HCA said both the Kickstart Housing Delivery Programme and the Local Authority New Build Programme were in the process of being wound down.

The Kickstart scheme was designed to target stalled sites, and to support construction of high quality, mixed tenure housing developments.

Two rounds of the Local Authority New Build Programme – which allowed councils to build new social rented homes – took place after it was first announced in April 2009. This was expected to see £514m of grant and prudential borrowing invested in more than 4,100 new council homes.

The decision to close the programmes comes after the Treasury decided to cut £450m from the HCA’s budget for 2010/11.

The HCA’s local investment teams are reviewing the remaining Kickstart round 2 schemes and LANB schemes which are not in contract and will decide which of those can be funded with available resources.