IRRV Alert November 3 2008
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Housing and Planning Delivery Grant
The Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP
Minister of State
Minister for Housing, attending Cabinet
| Date of statement | 10 November 2008 |
|---|---|
| Type | Written |
I am today announcing final allocations of the first round of £101 million of Housing Planning Delivery Grant (HPDG) for 2008-09. HPDG was established in 2007 to reward local authorities for improved delivery of housing and other planning outcomes as part of their strategic, place shaping role and to provide more support to communities and local councils who are actively seeking to deliver new homes. The grant replaces Planning Delivery Grant which has been paid since 2002-03. The housing element of the grant was developed following concerns from Local Authorities that housing growth was inadequately recognised by the local government finance system. HPDG is designed to strengthen the incentive for local authorities to respond to local housing pressures by returning the benefits of growth to communities and to incentivise efficient and effective planning procedures.
The grant is performance related. The £40m housing element of the grant goes to all local authorities with net additional housing completions above 0.75 per cent of their existing housing stock. The net additions are averaged over the previous three years. For each net addition above the threshold, the local authority receives one unit (£916) of housing grant. The amount per unit is calculated by the total amount of money for the year divided by the total number of units above the threshold.
The £61m planning element of the grant consists of four separate parts with incentives for local authorities to deliver:
- sufficient land for housing (40 per cent of the planning element)
- Core Strategies and Development Plan Documents allocating more than 2000 dwellings (50 per cent)
- joint working on the production of development plan documents (6 per cent)
- a Strategic Housing Market Assessment (4 per cent)
The formula for allocating HPDG was consulted on last year. A review of the formula will be undertaken ahead of next year's allocations.
The announcement today includes the revised allocations of awards following the evaluation of the challenges to the provisional allocations which we published in July. The successful challenges resulted in an increase to the overall allocation which has been offset partially by redistribution of abatement. Downward adjustment of the provisional allocations for all authorities has therefore been kept to a minimum.
Grant allocations are not ring-fenced and authorities have discretion in the way they spend this money. However, to encourage investment for the future, 32.5 per cent of the total grant paid to any individual authority must be spent on capital. The remaining 67.5 per cent can be spent by the local authority on resource or capital budgets. Payments to local authorities will be made on Tuesday, 11 November 2008.
A table showing the amounts payable is available to download below and in the libraries of the House.
Related downloads
Housing and Planning Delivery Grant Final Allocations Table 2008/2009
PDF, 80kb, 9 pages
Housing and Planning Delivery Grant Final Allocations Table 2008/2009
MS Word, 576, 9 pages