10 December 2012 | Inside housing | Rhiannon Bury

Councils in England will receive a share of £661 million in return for building new homes next year, the government has announced.

Housing minister Mark Prisk has set out the new homes bonus allocations for 2013/14, which total £661 million for 353 authorities. Councils have delivered 142,000 new homes, including 58,000 affordable properties, this year.

This funding also rewards councils for bringing 13,000 long-term empty properties back into use.

Councils will have received £1.3 billion through the new homes bonus scheme since its launch in April 2011, thanks to 400,000 new builds and conversions, and over 50,000 empty properties being brought back into use.

The bonus is given to local authorities for each new home built which is the equivalent to the annual national average council tax for a property in that band, and paid for six years.

Mr Prisk said: ‘For years, developers found themselves at loggerheads with communities unconvinced that their plans for growth would benefit them.  But the new homes bonus is turning this around.

‘The £1.3 billion paid out to councils to date has meant that now local people are able to see the rewards of new developments in their area – paving the way for thousands of much-needed, locally-supported homes to be delivered across the country.’

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