Osborne confirms housing zones outside London

House-cutoutBUDGET 2015: Osborne has confirmed plans for the first 20 housing zones outside of London in his budget.

This is a doubling of the 10 zones the chancellor spoke of in his Mansion House Speech. They could accommodate 34,000 homes.

Some of those to receive housing zone status include south Bristol, Derby and Stoke-on-Trent and Gloucester.

The government is also working with eight other shortlisted areas.

These zones will see the government providing support and finance to enable the regeneration of brownfield sites into new homes.

Melanie Leech, chief executive of the BPF, said: “Spending cuts have meant that support for brownfield development all but disappeared during the recession. Housing zones are welcome recognition that we can deliver significant amounts of desperately needed housing on brownfield land, but that this will often need both central government support and clarity of purpose at local level.”

alex.horne@estatesgazette.com