Berkeley left in limbo as £52m spent on London Kickstart schemes

Nearly £20m of government funding for housebuilder Berkeley Group is still in doubt after the Homes and Communities Agency finalised its review of Kickstart housing schemes in London.

The review found £51.7m for seven private sector schemes and nine local authority schemes, helping housebuilders including Barratt, Crest Nicholson and Countryside Properties.

However five Berkeley schemes, previously allocated £18.4m and due to deliver 341 homes, have not been allocated funding. These include Beauford Park scheme in Barnet, the Kidbrooke regeneration in Greenwich and the Caspian Wharf scheme in Tower Hamlets. In total six kick-start and three local authority schemes did not have funding.

All Kickstart and local authority new build schemes were put under review after a total of £450m was cut from the HCA’s budget by the Coalition Government in the weeks following the general election. In total the remaining cash allocated will result in the construction of 372 homes in the capital.

Similar reviews are being undertaken in all of the HCA’s regions and are due to be concluded in the next few weeks.

London mayor Boris Johnson said: “This funding will provide a major boost to regeneration in the capital and deliver more affordable accommodation to help some of the most vulnerable households.

“Housing must remain a priority, which is why we have rescued these schemes from the spectre of the credit crunch and delivered the cash needed to get construction up and running but at less cost to the public purse.”

David Lunts, HCA Director for London, said: “Despite the belt-tightening times, we have worked hard with our partners to find ways to make these projects better value for money and each will provide badly-needed new homes for Londoners”.