Funding to unlock new housing welcomed

Funding totalling nearly £23million for infrastructure to unlock new housing developments in West Sussex has been welcomed.
Louise GoldsmithLouise Goldsmith
Louise Goldsmith

Projects in Burgess Hill, Crawley and Shoreham are set to benefit from successful bids to the Government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund.

Louise Goldsmith, leader of West Sussex County Council, said: “This is excellent news for West Sussex and a great achievement by the teams from Adur, Crawley and Mid Sussex councils, who made the successful bids.

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“This was a highly-competitive process with local authorities bidding against each other to try to secure funding for their communities. The fund was significantly over-subscribed, with bids of more than £2billion for a ‘pot’ worth £866million.”

Mrs Goldsmith added: “West Sussex is a place where people want to live and work, so demand for housing is high. Meeting that need is challenging and has to be supported by the infrastructure needed to sustain communities.”

The successful bids were:

• Adur District Council: £10million to support Southern Housing Group’s Free Wharf scheme for the Western Harbour Arm in Shoreham, which includes 540 mixed-tenure new homes as part of an extensive regeneration project

• Crawley Borough Council: £4.4million to support the construction of an acoustic barrier, enabling more than 400 homes to go ahead at the Forge Wood development;

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• Crawley Borough Council: £2million to provide infrastructure and site remediation measures that secure the viability of around 300 homes at Telford Place;

• Mid Sussex District Council: £6.5million for Northern Arc development infrastructure. Working with the county council and Southern Water to deliver a range of odour mitigation measures at Goddards Green, near Burgess Hill, enabling a key element for the development of up to 3,500 homes to go ahead.

The county council is working closely with all three of these local authorities, which have Growth Deals in place.

Mrs Goldsmith said: “We have detailed plans agreed for their areas which identify our joint priorities for growth and development. We know our Growth Deals are doing terrifically well in investing and developing our areas.”