Government lowers threshold for 'Get Britain Building' fund

It has opened up the remaining £100m of the £570 million fund. The fund provides loans or equity investment to developers whose schemes have planning permission but have stalled due to a lack of finance.

The Government has lowered the threshold for eligible developments to 15 homes, which it hopes will open up the scheme to smaller developers which could not previously access the funding. 

When the scheme was first opened, developers could only apply if schemes had plans for 25 homes or more. Applications are now invited for the funding until the deadline, which is at mid-day on the 25 July.

The funding is available again after headroom was created in the programme by the withdrawal of some schemes, the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) said. Some developers found they could restart without the funding, others failed to pass the HCA's due diligence tests and some final allocations were less than the original bid.

However, a few changes have been made in addition to the lower threshold of 15 homes, since the first round of bidding. The Government is now only offering loans and equity-risk sharing investment and work on the scheme must start on site by 31 March 2013. All homes must be complete by 31 March 2015.

The fund is administered by the HCA, the body responsible for assessing applications. "I'm pleased that we are able to extend the reach of the Get Britain Building programme," said Pat Ritchie, chief executive of the HCA.

"As with the original submissions, the HCA will continue to be thorough in our due diligence, and will only support those schemes backed by the community, which boost the local economy and provide a secure and value for money investment for the taxpayer," he said.