The government says new private investment of £550m will help boost the number of new build homes and make it easier for people to buy a property.
The prime minster Kier Starmer said the money would fund construction of homes across the country because “too many people”, especially the young, “want to get on the housing ladder because they know that owning your own home is sort of base camp for their aspirations in life”.
He added that the new government is “determined to knock away the obstacles” stopping housebuilding.
The real estate impact fund has an initial target of raising £200m with the aim of ultimately delivering 5,000 homes to address social inequality and deliver an appropriate financial return to investors, expects to make its first investments before the end of 2024.
Meanwhile the government has announced that councils will receive £68m to help build thousands of homes on disused brownfield sites. The money, spread around 54 local authorities, is expected to deliver 5,200 homes on sites such as former car parks and industrial land that can be difficult to build on.
It comes as the government looks to unlock investment to deliver on its aims to build 1.5 million new homes over the next five years.
The announcement of fresh funding came as the chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones yesterday hosted a roundtable with some of the biggest impact investors in the world, including Schroders, M&G, International Bank of America, Blackrock and Barclays, as the Government looks to create the right environment for impact investment across the country.
Jones said: “Investors tell us they want to help in delivering a better Britain. Working in partnership with government, social impact investing can change people’s lives and improve communities across the country.
“We are dedicated to creating the right environment for impact investment across the country, and the announcement of over half a billion pounds worth of impact investment building tens of thousands of new homes is a great example of the change that we are delivering on.”
Propertymark is among those that have welcomed fresh support for £550m housing investment from Schroders, Man Group and Resonance.
Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark, commented: “Impact investment funding is certainly one innovative method that can help unlock the potential for new homes across the country, especially as many developers have pledged to support this measure. However, it would be good to see more detail behind these plans as this may help to deliver the ambitious target of nearly two million homes that the UK government has pledged to build by the end of this parliament.
“We eagerly await more details in the UK government’s upcoming Budget about how any housebuilding will be funded, alongside a timetable for the enactment of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill that intends to reform the planning system to make it easier to build these desperately needed homes.”
