PUSH Growth fund Cut by 50%

By TeaJayGee

Monday, July 20, 2009, 20:59

 

PUSH - Partnership for Urban South Hampshire – will not be receiving the full £9.5million promised by the Government last autumn, it found out last week. Instead £4million will be diverted to building houses in the Midlands and the north of England.

Chairman of PUSH, Councillor Seán Woodward, is angry about the announcement: “I am appalled that the Government has pledged increased spending on Housing, which seems to be mainly focused on the Midlands and the north of England, whilst cynically cutting back money previously allocated to areas like South Hampshire… It really does not make any sense at all.”

One of the aims of PUSH, a partnership of 11 local authorities including Hampshire County Council and Fareham Borough Council, is to build 4,000 new homes per year till 2026, 30% of which is to be affordable housing.

This is part of the government's project Building Britain's Future, a housing pledge to build more homes across the country.

“PUSH has allocated the biggest share of its growth fund grant to housing projects, which has helped to keep construction activity going during the recession. Now we are to lose over £4 million pounds out of a budget of £9.5M simply to cover up the embarrassment caused by the Prime Minister making announcements without the funds to back them up. The real irony is that this may well actually result in real cuts in housing projects in South Hampshire.”

Part of this plan includes the development of 6,000 houses in a new community north of Hedge End. To follow the story of this development see the HedgeEndPeople website.

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