The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has recently released details of a number of new Housing Zones across
the country, building on proposals first announced in summer 2014, to help address the acute shortage of new housing stock. The aim is to create 20 or more Housing Zones across London and up to 28 Housing Zones outside of the capital to help deliver a total of over 95,000 new homes.

From London to Derby and York, the aim is for the new Housing Zones to facilitate the creation of these homes by developers, including registered providers.

The Housing Zones are designated areas of land where Government will provide funding to help break down some of the barriers currently holding back housing development - such as infrastructure, site acquisition, leaseholder buyouts and transport/community facilities. In return, the developer and local authority commit to providing a certain level of affordable and private housing and must meet these targets by a deadline as a condition of the funding.

The Housing Zones will therefore unlock brownfield land that has the potential to deliver housing schemes through a combination of long term investment funding, planning simplification, a dedicated brokerage support from central Government and expert planning and technical support from the Advisory Team for Large Applications (ATLAS) service run by the Homes and Communities Agency.