A £74 million deal has been completed by Homes England which will unlock the phase of development for a new Garden City.
The organisation has announced that the money will go towards the funding of a range of infrastructure works including earthworks to fill in a lake which, it states, will help to prepare the land ready for the construction of over 5,000 new homes in Ebbsfleet Garden City in Kent.
As well as the homes, the 657 acres of unlocked land will also be for commercial development – 180,000 square feet will be designated for this.
The deal represents one of the largest completed by Homes England over the past year, with the loan being made through the Home Building Fund (HBF). The aim of the fund is to help unlock or speed up the delivery of mixed-use and residential housing developments. This could either be through development loans, or loan funding for the infrastructure required to ready the land for development.
The full scheme at the Ebbsfleet Garden City is due to be completed over the next ten years.
Chief Executive of Homes England, Nick Walkey said: “At Homes England we’re using our land, finance and expertise to speed up the delivery of new homes. The vital infrastructure works that we’re funding in Ebbsfleet will bring forward the development of many new homes by around four years overall and, importantly, will mean many more homes can be built in the earlier phases of the development as a result of our support with the significant infrastructure costs.”
