Scheme in Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds backed by £45m of taxpayers’ cash

Gavin Barwell

The government has unveiled plans to build 2,000 homes for rent in the Midlands and northern England in a scheme which is being backed by a mixture of public and private cash.

The government will plough £45m into the work from its Home Building Fund, which is used to get new house building projects out of the ground, while HSBC is also putting up money. The work has been given a development value of £400m.

It is being flagged as one of the largest private rented sector (PRS) deals in the country.

Housing minister Gavin Barwell (pictured) told Building he has held discussions with a number of institutional investors about financing the thousands of homes needed in the future and said they were especially interested in PRS because it could give them a “reliable return each year”.

Nearly 1,000 homes will be built in Manchester with a further 750 across the Pennines in Leeds. Around 320 will be built in Birmingham.

Barwell said 1,500 construction jobs will be created with work starting next month and due to be completed by December 2019.

The homes will be managed by Danadara Living, which is looking after a 300 home PRS scheme in Aberdeen. The largest of its kind in Scotland, it was bought by fund manager LaSalle Investment Management on behalf of a pension fund.

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