Persimmon receives £20 million kick-start

Persimmon emerged as the biggest winner of the first £83 million tranche of funding from the second round of the programme, announced this week. It secured £20.4 million - almost a quarter of the total - and 21 of the 87 successful bids were Persimmon projects.

The Homes and Communities Agency will allocate a total of £550 million during the second round of the kick-start programme. It allocated £425 million in the first funding round last year (see box). A total of 265 schemes have been shortlisted for funding in the second round.

The HCA expects to announce a further three tranches with the due diligence process to be completed around June.

The HCA said the first tranche will unlock 5,696 new homes, 3,503 of which will be affordable. Of these, 2,193 will be available through the government’s homebuy direct scheme, which helps first-time buyers, 345 will be for other types of low-cost home ownership, and 802 will be for social rent.

Ashley Lane, partnerships director for Persimmon Group, said it had focused its bidding at providing homebuy direct properties. This was because they were ‘particularly helpful in bringing first-time buyers and re-entrants into the property market’.

Regionally, the west midlands secured the greatest slice of funding, grabbing £16.6 million to provide 1,005 homes. By contrast, London received the lowest portion with £5 million to provide 141 homes.

Sir Bob Kerslake, chief executive of the HCA, said: ‘The due diligence process for selecting these successful projects has been rigorous, assessing factors such as value for money, local fit, demand and sustainability to help ensure the homes meet the needs of the people who will live in them.’

The HCA said the disparity between regions would ‘even itself out’.

The 164-home Waterfront South development in Walsall from contractor Jessup Brothers was awarded the largest slice of funding for a single scheme, receiving £6.5 million.

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