Government Announces £3.8million Of New Homes Bonus Cash For Basildon

The Government has released figures revealing the amount of New Homes Bonus money local authorities will be receiving in 2016/17.

The New Homes Bonus is a grant paid by central government to local councils for increasing the number of homes and their use. Basildon has provisionally been awarded £3.79million of New Homes Bonus under the scheme which rewards local authorities every time a new house is built. The Bonus is match funded council tax available on all net additions made to housing stock in a local authority area with an added amount for affordable units. The bonus is paid for six years.

Basildon added 809 homes in the last year, including 135 affordable units and 24 houses which were empty and have been brought back into use. This all adds up to £956,000 of New Homes Bonus due on the units added this year, and taking into account the continuing match funding from previous years, £3.79million in total in 2016/17.

The New Homes Bonus can be used however the council in question decides and national evidence suggests that a variety of projects use the government cash including development of community assets and leisure facilities, funding of local projects put forward by local groups and parish councils and investment in frontline services which otherwise may have faced reductions.

Basildon Borough Council will receive the third highest level of New Homes Bonus in Essex where 14 local authorities are going to be given £36million in total. Its success is a result of the second highest housing delivery of all the Essex councils in 2014/15.

Rob Holbrook, Managing Director of local housebuilder Barratt Homes Eastern Counties, welcomed the New Homes Bonus announcement.

He said: “The New Homes Bonus is a good way for local communities like Basildon to get additional benefit from the construction of new homes. On top of the jobs and direct investment that come when we build the homes the area needs, this Government funding can help to pay for much needed services and local facilities.”

Barratt Homes Eastern Counties has been awarded the maximum five-star official rating from the Home Builders Federation (HBF) for the sixth year in a row. The news was announced after more than 20,000 new homebuyers across the country took part in this year's HBF customer satisfaction survey.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

1) For further information about Barratt Homes Eastern Counties, media should please contact Hannah Elwell, Director of PR or Laura Payne, PR Account Executive on 0116 247 1777 or hannah@unsworthsugden.co.ukor laura@unsworthsugden.co.uk

2) Barratt Homes is part of Barratt Developments PLC, a FTSE100 company

3) Barratt Group sold 16,447 homes in the year to June 2015, making it the biggest housebuilder by volume in Britain

4) Barratt Group was awarded a maximum five star rating for the sixth consecutive year in the 2015 Home Builders Federation Customer Satisfaction Survey

5) Site managers working for Barratt Group won 81 awards for quality workmanship in the 2015 NHBC Pride in the Job Awards. Barratt has won more Pride in the Job awards than any other housebuilder for the last eleven years

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/new-homes-bonus-provisional-allocations-for-2016-to-2017-and-consultation-on-reforming-the-bonus