The Government has announced nearly £200m a year for England’s newest mayoral regions in a further attempt to revive its 1.5 million homes pledge as planning approvals and new-build numbers plunge.

Only two months ago one leading estate agency warned that sales of new homes had reached crisis point. Savills said the last time the situation had been this dire was before the global financial crash of 2008-09.

Housing Secretary Steve Reed (pictured) said the funding would allow mayors to speed up housebuilding schemes, with the money to be used for preparing sites for construction, helping stalled schemes get moving again and supporting the early stages of new housing delivery.

The cash will go to Cheshire and Warrington, Cumbria, Greater Essex, Hampshire and the Solent, Norfolk and Suffolk, and Sussex and Brighton, with the largest shares going to Hampshire and the Solent and Greater Essex.

barrage of criticism

However, the new initiative has already run into a barrage of criticism, as funding will not be released until the inaugural mayoral elections take place – and those elections have now been delayed.

It means regions in the East and South East will only receive a third of their allocation for the next two years, with full payments not available until May 2028. In the North West, where elections have been pushed back to 2027, areas will only receive half their allocation next year.

Damaging delay

According to Inside Housing, MPs are warning that the delayed timetable will create uncertainty for councils and developers preparing their housing plans and that staggered funding will slow progress further at a time when the building programme is already under strain.

Official DLUHC figures show England is currently delivering around 210,000 homes a year, well below the 300,000-a-year pace required to meet the pledge, while planning permissions have fallen to their lowest level in more than a decade.