PRP’s Lancaster housing scheme among winners of government brownfield grants

A 580-home mixed-use scheme in Lancaster by PRP has received £1.6 million as part of a £35 million government cash handoutThe practice’s Canal Quarter scheme will receive the funding from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ Brownfield Land Release Fund 2.The money will help Lancaster City Council progress plans to regenerate an area between the St Nicolas Arcade and the Lancaster Canal.PRP drew up a masterplan for the scheme earlier this year and a consultation on the proposals closed last month.Councillor Gina Dowding said this week: ‘A key ambition of the Canal Quarter masterplan is to provide local people and families with much-needed affordable housing.‘While there is still some way to go, and the proposals still need to be worked up in detail and be subject to a full business case, funding is always a major sticking point and the awarding of these grants takes us one step clearer to achieving our ambitions.’In total, almost £35 million has been handed out to 41 councils to help kickstart urban regeneration on council-owned land. A total of 59 regeneration projects covering more than 2,000 homes will benefit from the latest wave of funding.Two schemes for Ipswich Borough Council by local practice Barefoot & Gilles will take a significant chunk of £3.3 million awarded to the authority through the fund. The practice working up plans for 30 homes in Fore Hamlet as well as 26 homes on Hawke Road.Approved plans by Vistry Partnerships North East to convert a former civic centre in Sunderland into 265 homes secured £1.9 million through the fund.Housing minister Lucy Frazer said: ‘We are helping local communities transform unwanted, urban eyesores into thriving places that people are proud to call home.‘Regeneration is at the heart of our levelling-up mission, and this new brownfield first fund will help communities across the country unlock disused, council-owned sites to build more of the right homes in the right places.’Local Government Association chairman James Jamieson added: ‘Councils play a vital role in driving progress to provide more and better housing, and the awarding of this fund will ensure English councils unlock their brownfield land for new homes and deliver local housing priorities.’