Funding
What we did
Funding of the scheme has largely been from our own resources, however, we were pleased to secure Homes England grant funding to assist with the delivery of new build properties on the scheme, together with an allocation from the DLUHC Estate Regeneration Fund to assist with the delivery of the regeneration element of the scheme.
Whilst there may have been opportunity to explore other regeneration grant funding for the scheme, we concluded that the delivery of the scheme was such a high strategic priority for us, delivery had to be prioritised as quickly as possible to prevent further decline of the estate.
How it went
Our initial approach to Homes England was a request to fund all 33 new build properties, however, due to several selective demolitions required to deliver the overall scheme, funding was initially approved for half of the properties. We took the decision to proceed with the scheme regardless and as Homes England’s strategic plan developed during delivery, we were successful in securing funding for the balance of new build units because of increased market costs faced due to material and labour shortages.
Accessing to the DLUHC funding has allowed us to deliver additionality to the scheme to address resident concerns around safety by providing additional areas of fencing and external dusk to dawn lights to fronts and backs of properties.
Lessons learned
- We appreciate that funding is inevitably one of the biggest barriers to delivering large scale regeneration and a clear strategic steer from board level downwards has been essential to seeing the Church Lane North scheme being delivered
- Consideration should be given to having smaller scale ‘shovel ready’ projects ready to capitalise on funding streams as they become available.
