Government investment opens up 133 council-led local housing projects

02/02/2018

Government investment of £866 million in essential infrastructure such as new roads, cycle paths, flood defences and land remediation work will open up 133 sites across England for council-led projects to build up to 200,000 new homes.

It will also deliver a welcome boost to a construction industry still reeling from the collapse of Carillion.

The investment is the first wave of funding from the £5 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund *, which will provide high quality infrastructure to support local industrial growth in some of England’s highest demand area. It will also support government’s aims of building 300,000 new homes each year and ensuring enough housing is built in the areas that need it most.

Projects from County Durham to Cornwall that will be kick-started by the first wave of HIF include

£10 million for highway infrastructure to unlock further development at the Ashton Green housing site in Leicester, helping to unlock 3,300 homes.
£10 million for construction of a bypass in Botley, Hampshire, a critical strategic road infrastructure project that will help unlock the delivery of 1,000 new homes.
£3.6 million for drainage works, new roads and footpaths at the Manor Cluster, south-east Sheffield to help unlock more than 400 homes by 2025.
£6.5 million to help build a new primary school as part of the Ilfracombe Southern Extension in North Devon. This will help unlock 750 new homes.

The complexity of client/contractor/sub contractor relationships that can involve the supply of labour and/or materials over many years in major contracts, plus the need to factor in payment by instalments and the imposition of retentions, give the construction sector a particularly complex set of credit management problems.

The Credit Protection Association can call upon a resource of internal expertise, extensive experience and sophisticated tools to tailor the most efficient and cost-effective credit management system for each construction sector client and its particular set of circumstances.

* Funding from the HIF is awarded to local authorities on a competitive basis and divided into two streams comprising –

1) A Marginal Viability Fund – available to all single and lower tier local authorities in England – to provide a piece of infrastructure funding to get additional sites allocated or existing sites unblocked quickly. Bids can be up to £10 million.

2) A Forward Fund – available to the uppermost tier of local authorities in England – for a small number of strategic and high-impact infrastructure projects. Bids can be up to £250 million.

The Credit Protection Association is a credit management company established in 1914. If you supply goods or services on credit then we can help you!