£75m Local Authority Fund to Release Brownfield Land
New £75m fund available to support local authority partnerships in England to help unlock surplus land and property.
The £75m Brownfield Land Release Fund (BLRF) will support the release of local authority-owned brownfield land for housing, and in addition, the fund will also seek to support self and custom-build projects on both brownfield and greenfield sites.
The Fund will be administered through the One Public Estate Programme, a partnership between Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, and the Local Government Association.
The BLRF is offering up to £75 million of capital grant funding to unlock and accelerate the release of these sites. Of this, £25 million will be allocated for self and custom-build projects that meet the gateway criteria.
The aims of the Brownfield Land Release Fund are to:
- Release local authority owned land by the end of March 2024 for housing development that otherwise would not come forward during that period
- Encourage the use of public assets to drive innovative delivery, through SME support, bespoke delivery models, high-quality design and modern methods of construction
- Demonstrate a return for Government investment into these small sites
- Enable schemes to deliver within the funding timescale.
It is expected that this funding to be attractive to sites typically accommodating up to 250 homes, but larger sites may be considered by exception.
All local authorities across England are eligible to apply, apart from those in Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) areas that had the opportunity to benefit from the £400 million Brownfield Housing Fund (Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, North of Tyne, Sheffield City Region, Tees Valley, West Midlands and West Yorkshire).
Applications must be coordinated via an OPE partnership.
Applications should be submitted by the deadline of 2 June 2021.
