Barclays and the government launch £1bn housing development fund to help deliver more homes
Barclays today announces that it has teamed up with the UK government to provide £1bn of development finance to help build thousands of new homes across England to help increase the pace and volume of housing provision.
Loans ranging from £5m to £100m, which will be competitively priced, are available for developers and house builders who are able to demonstrate the necessary experience and track record to undertake and complete their proposed project. Funding is open to new clients as well as existing Barclays clients, and will put greater emphasis on diversifying the housing market, as at present, almost two-thirds of homes are built by just ten companies.
A key priority of The Housing Delivery Fund is to support small and medium sized businesses to develop homes for rent or sale including social housing, retirement living and the private rented sector, whilst also supporting innovation in the model of delivery such as brownfield land and urban regeneration projects.
Launching the fund, John McFarlane, Barclays’ chairman, said:
“There is a vital need to build more good quality homes across the country. This £1bn fund is about helping to do exactly that by showing firms in the business of house building that the right finance is available for projects that help meet this urgent need.
“We are very pleased to be working with government to get the country building more homes, more quickly.”
Housing secretary Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP, said:
“My priority as housing secretary is to get Britain building the homes our country needs. This new fund – partnering Homes England with Barclays – is a further important step by giving smaller builders access to the finance they need to get housing developments off the ground.
“This is a fantastic opportunity to not only get more homes built but also promote new and innovative approaches to construction and design that exist across the housing market.”
Chairman of Homes England, Sir Ed Lister, said:
“Homes England has been established to play a more active role in the housing market and do things differently to increase the pace, scale and quality of delivering new homes.
“The Housing Delivery Fund demonstrates Barclays’ commitment to the residential sector and will provide a new funding stream for SME developers to help progress sites and deliver more affordable homes across England.”
Today’s agreement with Barclays forms part of the government’s wider commitment to increase the pace of housing delivery in England. Ministers have been clear on their ambition to achieve 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s, which follows 217,000 homes built last year, the biggest increase in housing supply in England for almost a decade.
