Shropshire Council awarded more than £500,000 to help provide homes in Ellesmere
A scheme that will see up to 60 much-needed homes built in Ellesmere is set to go ahead after Shropshire Council was today awarded more than £500,000 by the Government.
Last year councils were invited to bid for funding from the £45m Land Release Fund, to enable them to bring forward for housing development surplus land that would otherwise not be developed. The Fund provides capital funding for works such as remediation and the provision of small scale infrastructure
Shropshire Council has been awarded £544,507 for a housing scheme on land at Ellesmere Wharf – which is the full amount that was requested.
The council is the owner of the land that requires some intensive remediation to enable it to be developed to provide up to 60 apartments, some of which may be for extra care provision.
A plan of the site at which work is to be carried out.
The funding will be used for ground investigation work, flood risk assessment, initial design, and remediation works to what was a previously contaminated area. The funding will enable the council to unlock this development, which has been part of the plan for housing development in Ellesmere for several years.
The Land Release Fund has been launched by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government in partnership with the One Public Estate programme run by the Cabinet Office and the Local Government Association (LGA).
Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council’s deputy leader and Cabinet member for corporate support, said:
“This is brilliant news for Shropshire Council and for Ellesmere. I’m delighted that the council has received another funding award as part of the One Public Estate programme, which is reconition of the work that we are doing in the county. Through the programme we work closely with other public sector partners to look at land and property that we own and see how we can develop it for the benefit of our local communities.”
Ann Hartley, Shropshire Councillor for Ellesmere Urban division, said:
“This is such positive news for Ellesmere and Shropshire Council. It will help to meet the demand for much-needed one and two-bed apartments in the town, and is another step forward in the development of the brown field area around the Wharf head – which will hopefully kickstart further action in the area.”
In a letter to Shropshire Council confirming the funding award, Dominic Raab, Minister of State for housing, said:
“We look forward to working with you to progress Ellesmere Remediation, which will release much needed land for new homes, and I welcome the ambitious plans for growth set out in your bid.”
Further information
A total of 79 bids were successful in the assessment process, which will see £45 million being awarded to 41 councils, to support building up to 7,280 homes on council owned land.
The fund was oversubscribed with more than £100 million received in funding requests for 143 projects.
In the 2016 Budget the Chancellor announced that councils would collaborate with central government on a local government land ambition, working with their partners to release surplus land with the capacity for at least 160,000 homes.
