According to reports, just £1.3bn of the UK Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) has been spent more than six years after its launch
The UK Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) was initially created in 2017 to provide the infrastructure necessary to unlock new homes in locations with high housing demand.
According to a report by the Financial Times, just £1.3bn (31%) of the funding has been spent, with the bulk of the fund allocated in 2021 and 2022.
Work has begun on less than 1 in 10 of the promised homes
It was also confirmed in the report that work has commenced on fewer than one in 10 of the pledged homes.
The delivery target through the fund has been adjusted from 340,000 to 270,000 homes due to the withdrawal or cessation of funding for several schemes.
Rising costs and regulatory burdens have meant that schemes have been placed on hold
The Financial Times quotes Marcus Dixon, director of UK residential research at the real estate firm JLL, that the UK Housing Infrastructure Fund had been put on hold due to ‘rapidly rising costs and an increased regulatory burden’.
Since the pandemic, costs have risen up to 40 per cent. According to Dixon, this meant that ‘schemes that had secured funding began to face shortfalls’.
A separate report from the DLUHC cites ‘increasing inflationary pressures impacting costs and causing delays in delivery’ as the main issue for the scheme falling off track.
Despite this, a spokesperson from the government told the Financial Times that it was ‘confident’ that it would provide the entire £4.2bn of the Housing Infrastructure Fund and unlock up to 270,000 homes.
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