Alok Sharma supports community-led housing sector with £60million

In a speech to the first Community-Led Housing Conference, Alok Sharma MP praised the sector and announced a new programme of financial support. £60million has already been given to local authorities with high levels of second home ownership. The minister has now offered a further £60million to help fund further development 'for the first year alone', implying an ongoing programme. This accords with the announcement for the original £60million, which was presented as a 'hypothecation' from the additional revenue being raised by the 3% SDLT surcharge on purchases of second homes. The $64,000 question is whether the bidding criteria will allow the money to be spent on bringing empty homes back into use, as the community-led groups did so impressively as part of the Empty Homes Community Grants Programme over 2012-15. For details of Alok Sharma's speech to the Conference refer to the DCLG website here.