A multi-million pound programme is supporting the delivery of thousands of new homes across West Yorkshire.
Speaking at the largest annual gathering of Northern social housing leaders in Leeds, regional Mayor Tracy Brabin pledged almost £90 million by March next year to help unlock over 5,400 new homes.
The funding is being distributed to housing providers working across 28 sites in Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield. Work is already in progress or completed on 16 projects, with work on the remaining 12 due to start before March 2025.
The developments on previously developed, disused “brownfield” land include:
- Saxton Lane in Leeds, which will deliver 204 new, affordable apartments
- Newport House in Wakefield, which has delivered 37 new, affordable apartments
- Cow Green in Calderdale, which will deliver 122 new homes
- Manchester Road in Bradford, which will deliver 107 new, affordable homes
- Plane Street in Kirklees, which will deliver 30 new homes
In her keynote address at the Northern Housing Consortium’s (NHC) summit, Mayor Brabin warned that the funding was a “sticking plaster” over the region’s housing crisis, with over 80,000 households on waiting lists for a council home, and over 1,500 households living in unsuitable temporary accommodation.
However, she struck an optimistic tone, pointing to a landmark partnership with Homes England to boost the delivery of 38,000 homes on brownfield land, and the Deputy Prime Minister’s pledge to build 1.5 million new homes, including the biggest increase in social and affordable housing for a generation.
Speaking at the NHC Northern Housing Summit, Mayor Tracy Brabin said: “This is personal for me. Growing up in a safe and secure council flat was the foundation on which my life was built, and I want every child in West Yorkshire to have that start in life.
“It’s unacceptable that we have hundreds of children in temporary accommodation, doing their homework on the bathroom floors of hotel rooms, because working families have been priced out of having a roof over their head.
“We’re turning the tide with almost £90 million to build 5,400 new homes on brownfield land, but we could unlock 38,000 more with the right freedoms and flexibilities from the government.
“Working together with our dedicated housing partners and the Deputy Prime Minister, we’ll build a greener, more secure region with thousands more affordable and sustainable homes.”
Under the previous government, each new brownfield housing development had to demonstrate financial benefits that outweighed the cost, making it difficult for regional leaders to back new housing projects in areas where the land values are relatively low.
Tweaking this “cost benefit rule” to look at the overall financial benefit of multiple sites, instead of each site on its own, would allow for more housebuilding opportunities across the whole of West Yorkshire, not just in certain areas of high land value.
The new Government has pledged to “Get Britain Building” by reforming the national planning system and giving greater flexibilities to local areas, with West Yorkshire leaders hoping to build an additional 38,000 new homes on brownfield land, for which planning permission has already been secured.
Cllr Denise Jeffery, Leader of Wakefield Council and Chair of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Place, Regeneration and Housing Committee, said: “Thousands more families are living in safe, secure, and affordable homes because of the decisions of our West Yorkshire Mayor in partnership with local Councils. We’ve really made the most of the powers and funding devolved to our region so far.
“But now we need to accelerate this work even more. For too long, strict Government rules over where our brownfield housing fund is spent have blocked our plans. This has limited too much of what we’ve been able to achieve to places where land values are already high.
“With the backing of a new Government, and the promise of greater flexibility in how we can make decisions, we can build 38,000 new homes. That is at the heart of delivering a region which everyone can be proud to call home.”
