Kickstart boosts house-building

Nov 2 2009 by Karen McLauchlan, Evening Gazette

PROPERTY developments on Teesside have been given a multi-million pound boost by the Government to help kick-start the construction sector.

The projects in Stockton and Middlesbrough are part of more than 150 stalled schemes across the country to benefit from a £450m funding package which has the aim of “getting work back on track and builders back on site”.

Bellway Homes will receive funding to get its Kvaerner, Stockton, site back on track. The £2m scheme will deliver 50 homes for social rent and market sale on a former industrial site on the edge of the town centre.

Yuill Homes will receive £2.29m to unlock a total of 69 homes for market sale, HomeBuy Direct, social rent and low cost homeownership at St Cuthbert’s Mews in West Lane, Middlesbrough.

Mr Healey said the Kickstart cash injection to every region is a rapid response to the recession, to help house-building at a time when the industry needs it most.

Workers will start returning to mothballed sites across the UK within weeks - building more than 11,100 homes and creating or safeguarding around 9,500 jobs. More than 5,000 of these houses will be affordable homes for low cost sale or rent.

A total of £500m has been set aside for a second round of funding, for which bids have already been received to deliver up to 55,000 homes and around 2,000 apprenticeships.

Under the terms of Kickstart, more than two-thirds of the funding is expected to be repaid, with less than a fifth consisting of direct grant.

The St Cuthbert’s Mews funding application was made earlier this year in a revised proposal which has brought the West Middlesbrough Neighbourhood Trust and Yuill Homes together with Endeavour Housing Association

Stephen Jackson, head of partnership development at Yuill Homes, said the funding would ensure the scheme was completed “as soon as possible”.

“The proposals will see much needed private and affordable housing developed helping complete the regeneration of this increasingly popular area of Middlesbrough to the benefit of existing and new residents alike, whilst also bring local employment opportunities,” he added.