£36m earmarked for starter homes scheme

Ministers are to release £36 million to purchase and clean up brownfield sites for the first wave of Government promised new starter homes.

Communities Secretary Greg Clark said that £26 million would be spent by Government directly with a further £10 million being made available to local authorities.

Once the land is ready for building, it will be sold on to developers as part of the Government's programme to build 200,000 new starter homes in England by 2020.

Properties built under the scheme will be offered exclusively to first-time buyers under the age of 40 with a 20% discount on market values.

Sites will be identified, bought and prepared over the course of the 2015/16 - enabling building to start during 2016/17 and 2017/18.

Mr Clark said: "We are helping bring back into use more brownfield land for development, keeping the country building and delivering the homes our communities need."