The Homes and Communities Agency this week approved funding for 91 housing developments under the first wave of the government’s £925m Kickstart programme, announced in July

A further 63 schemes have been approved for the programme, which aims to get stalled residential developments off the ground, subject to “further conditions being met” or “requiring further consideration”.

As a result, £207m will now be allocated to directly fund 6,618 new and affordable homes. A further £241m could be allocated to another 5,144 homes, if the 63 conditionally approved schemes get final sign-off.

Thirty-five schemes were not approved for funding as they did not meet the HCA’s criteria for the programme, “particularly on design and value for money grounds”.

Schemes that could qualify under the first tranche of Kickstart funding have to be non-viable in the current economic climate and developers would have to complete homes by March 2011.

There remains about £500m of government funding for the next round of Kickstart. The HCA confirmed that it has now received more than 660 bids for funding under this second round.

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