£3m Kickstart boost will trigger building again at three sites

MORE than 180 new homes will be built on mothballed construction sites in Derby thanks to nearly £3m from the Government.

Work on sites in London Road, Mickleover and Pear Tree that had stalled because of the downturn in the economy will begin again through the Kickstart programme.

It came into being last year to support the construction industry through the recession.

Almost a third of the homes to be built will be HomeBuy Direct properties, meaning buyers pay 70% of the market value.

Ownership of the remaining 30% of the equity is split between the developer and the Government.

In the latest round of Kickstart funding, Morris Homes has secured £768,000 to start building 69 new homes at its City Point development on the former Wilmorton College site between London Road and Pride Park.

A total of 36 of these will be for sale to the wider market and 33 homes available through HomeBuy Direct.

On the site of the former Baseball Ground, 66 homes will be built after developer Strata Homes was allocated £1.6m.

Just over £1.2m has been allocated to Derby developer Radleigh Homes to start building work on 52 homes in Mickleover. Fourteen of the homes will be part of the HomeBuy Direct scheme.

The Scholars Gate development has been on hold since January 2009.

Chris Neve, joint managing director of Radleigh, said: "A condition of the funding is that all the homes are built by March 2011."

"Securing the funding has been an intensive process in terms of the detailed information the Homes and Communities Agency requires of developers.

"It has helped people start to build again and it's going to revive the market," said Mr Neve.

Radleigh has applied for more funding for a housing development on the former site of Merrill College.

The developer plans to build 59 homes, 23 of which will be houses for rent with social housing provider Derwent Living and 12 will be available through HomeBuy Direct.

Mr Neve said: "The due diligence process is going ahead now and an announcement on funding should be made within the next few weeks."

A further 136 properties will be built in Tibshelf by December next year if developer Westleigh is successful in its application for £5.5m of Government funding.

Housing minister John Healey said: "We're putting the weight of Government investment into building much-needed affordable homes, keeping people in work and giving young people a chance of apprenticeships.''