The government has recently created the Land Assembly Fund and the Small Sites Fund that is designed to release land for developers to build new homes.

Developers often have issues such as land contamination, lack of infrastructure and complex land ownership and these delay building projects. These issues can also make it increasingly difficult to raise funds for construction work.

The Land Assembly Fund has a budget of £1.3 billion to purchase land and arrange for work to be done to make it ready for housing developments.

The Small Sites Fund has £630 million available to provide grants to get the correct infrastructure available for homes built on small building sites.

James Brokenshire, the Communities Secretary said:

“We need to act on a number of fronts to build the homes this country needs. The availability of this investment will help us intervene in the sort of sites that aren’t yet ready to build on, or where developers have been put off. Developers can now get straight on with building homes, rather than overcoming the barriers to build. And in the same way we are also supporting councils that have land for housing but need additional help to enable development.”

By the mid-2020s the government hopes that these initiatives will result in an extra 300,000 new homes a year. Lenders are also helping by offering bridging finance, development loans and commercial mortgages for developers to fund the building of both residential and commercial property.