Housebuilding developments seek funding approval

A two-year house-building programme worth £18.8m will go for approval before Birmingham City Council’s Cabinet at a meeting on Wednesday.

The programme will see the council’s house building arm – Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust (BMHT) – deliver 107 homes for social rent and 24 homes for sale on small sites, including redundant garage forecourts, municipal depots and the sites of former pubs across the city.

Some of the sites already have planning permission, while others are in the process of securing approval.

It is forecast that the sites, when built, will deliver a revenue surplus of £14.1m over the next 30 years.

BMHT has built around 2,500 homes in the last three years and has built more than 20% of all new homes in Birmingham since 2011.

This programme will seek to deliver a higher proportion of four and five-bedroom homes than in typical developments, to target the needs in the city.

Birmingham City Council’s cabinet member for housing and homes, Cllr Peter Griffiths, said: “Despite huge pressures on the council, we are determined to tackle the housing crisis – building new homes, working with housing partners in the region and pursuing creative solutions to address different housing needs.”

The city council will be encouraging smaller contractors to re-enter the house-building market and work on these sites. It has also submitted a grant funding application to Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP for £510,000 to gap fund some of the smaller and more expensive sites.

The programme, if approved, would create 19 apprenticeship opportunities and around £660,000 of income to support the Building Birmingham Scholarship initiative.

“This is a win for house building, a win for the economy and a win for training,” added Griffiths.