Brownfield Housing Fund BHF

Brownfield Housing Funds were mentioned in the government Guidance document Brownfield, Infrastructure and Land Fund originally published in July 2023 and updated in April 2025. It states its aims as being :

'to support a diverse range of partners, both public and private sector, to unlock strategic housing sites including housing-led, mixed-use opportunities where brownfield, infrastructure or land projects face delivery and/or viability challenges. The fund supports the delivery of smaller, locally important sites, as well as larger-scale transformative projects of regional or national significance. Eligible activity includes:

• land acquisition, preparation and enabling works
• brownfield site remediation and works to heritage assets
• provision of on- and off-site utilities and transport infrastructure
• provision of placemaking improvements and community facilities
• provision of section 106-required infrastructure (excluding affordable housing)
• capitalised fees required to deliver the project

On 22 March 2026 the government announced "Seven new towns proposed to kickstart housebuilding push" as part of this it confirmed that alongside the new towns consultation, the government confirmed that the National Housing Bank will launch on 1 Apri, 2026l, backed with up to £16bn of financial capacity and will aim to deliver over 500,000 new homes. It also confirmed additional support worth up to £400 million over the next decade for subsidised products, to enable both the National Housing Bank and regional Mayors to issue loans and investments at lower interest rates and unlock housebuilding across the country. The Bank will respond flexibly to market needs, unlock over £53 billion of private investment, and provide developers with more financial stability and certainty to support the delivery of over half a million new homes.

Part of this is an additional £234 million grant fund will support Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) to unlock 8,000 new homes on derelict brownfield land. Areas benefitting from the funding include Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, the East Midlands, Greater Lincolnshire, Hull & East Yorkshire, Tees Valley, West of England and York & North Yorkshire.

The announcement states that the Brownfield Housing Fund (BHF) is a grant fund to unlock housing supply on brownfield land, as part of awider National Housing Delivery Fund (NHDF) to launch in April to support housing delivery nationwide: "It is directly allocated to Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) to ease the viability issues that brownfield projects face and therefore unlock homes on brownfield land. We have previously announced devolved housing funding for the most established MSAs through their Integrated Settlements. Today (22 March 2026) a further £234 million has been allocated for Mayoral Strategic Authorities in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, the East Midlands, Greater Lincolnshire, Hull & East Yorkshire, Tees Valley, West of England and York & North Yorkshire, to unlock 8,000 new homes."

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