Hundreds of new homes could be built in Sunderland under £8.5million scheme - and here's where

Government housing agency, Homes England, has offered Sunderland City Council an £8.5million pot to help prepare sites for house builders.

Next week, city leaders will be asked to accept the funding which aims to deliver housing at an accelerated pace.

This will be delivered as part of the Local Authority Accelerated Construction (LACC) scheme with six sites currently identified.

The council’s cabinet member for housing and regeneration, Coun Stuart Porthouse, said: “The council has a policy of disposing of surplus land and assets.

“It’s very often, though, a buyer’s market for land sales.

“Many house builders will not build houses where they feel the remediation and development land costs are too high.

“So, there can be many sites that have to wait until market conditions have changed before they are developed.”

So far, the council has identified land for nearly 500 homes across several key sites.

Sites include:

The former Carley Hill School – 100 units

Fulwell Quarry – 90 units

Stadium Village – 60 units

Upper Fulwell – 60 units

Little Usworth – 60 units

North Moor – 110 units

A seventh site at Hylton College has also been identified with the terms of sale agreed with developers last month.

Coun Porthouse added: “The council now has this offer to unlock more value and land potential by preparing the sites for development by smaller house builders.

“I shall be recommending this to my cabinet colleagues.

“Once the land is better prepared for development, then we can invite smaller scale house builders in, who use these new construction techniques to put up new homes.

“It’s one of the most important priorities for our city – more new and affordable homes.”

The final decision will be made by Sunderland City Council’s cabinet on Wednesday, November 21.

The meeting will start at 2pm in committee room one and for more information, visit: www.sunderland.gov.uk

Chris Binding , Local Democracy Reporting Service