Guidance

Home Building Fund - Infrastructure Loans

If you're preparing land for homes, we can loan you up to £250 million to cover infrastructure and enabling costs.

Applies to England

What the fund supports

We want to support developers, master developers and landowners in unlocking strategic housing sites, allowing land for housing to be delivered more quickly and creating great communities.

Our infrastructure funding can provide the financing for any non-housebuilding activity needed to unlock large sites and enable partners to use their capital resources to deliver housing quickly.

The fund predominantly provides infrastructure loan finance but also has capacity to provide support to establish investment platforms that unlock new housing capacity.

Activity you might need funding for could include:

  • land preparation and enabling works
  • provision of on- and off-site transport infrastructure
  • provision of education facilities
  • provision of placemaking and community facilities
  • provision of section 106-required infrastructure (excluding affordable housing)

If you’re building homes for sale or rent, you can also apply for development finance from the Levelling Up Home Building Fund.

Eligibility for funding

You may be eligible for funding if:

  • your project is financially viable
  • your project would stall, or progress much less quickly, without this funding
  • you are a UK-registered corporate entity or limited liability partnership (LLP)
  • your infrastructure project will lead to the development of new housing

When we make a loan offer, you will:

  • normally need to have a controlling interest in the land and a clear route to achieving planning consent
  • typically have a masterplan or outline planning granted

We cannot fund projects where:

  • there are new leasehold houses
  • leasehold flats are charged more than a peppercorn (i.e. nominal) ground rent

Loans

All our lending needs appropriate security and loans are typically secured against property assets.

The fund offers loans of up to £250 million. Note that:

  • typical terms are up to 20 years
  • interest is payable at  transparent, commercial, pre-agreed variable rates
  • sales income from the sale of homes or serviced plots of land can be recycled to minimise the loan request
  • we will consider subordinated lending
  • we will discuss eligible costs with each applicant

Other investments

The fund can deploy its equity allocation to support the establishment and growth of platforms  to enable housing delivery to be unlocked at scale. This may include funds for institutional investors and partnerships bringing together new capital sources and delivery partners.

Homes England has partnered with the private sector to create a new master developer platform. It focuses on the master development of multiple large scale, residential-led developments from 1,000 to more than 10,000 homes along with a variety of community facilities and employment uses. It will include large brownfield developments, as well as new garden village style communities.

If the eligibility criteria change

The Home Building Fund - Infrastructure Loans’ eligibility criteria may be updated from time to time to reflect government priorities. Should changes to the eligibility criteria for the Fund be required we would not be obliged to consult with you about them.

How we prioritise applications

As a government-backed initiative, the Home Building Fund - Infrastructure Loans reflects wider government priorities. We are looking for, and will approve, applications based on:

  • the best value for money for the taxpayer
  • the greatest potential for early delivery
  • clear local support
  • projects that support policy priorities, such as:
    • strengthening the SME developer market
    • brownfield development
    • diversification and innovation in the housing market

Funding decisions

Any funding decision we make to you under the fund may be changed or withdrawn by us until we have completed due diligence and signed agreements with you. We advise you not to make business decisions assuming your application will be successful - you should wait until we have signed agreements with you.

Homes England has responsibility for managing the fund and our lending decisions are final.

How to apply

  1. Contact us online through our enquiry form, or by email, phone or post.

  2. If you meet our criteria, one of our investments team will help you apply.

  3. We allocate you a dedicated transaction manager.

  4. You receive our funding decision and confirmed price.

  5. We complete due diligence and sign the agreement.

  6. You build the infrastructure.

  7. You repay the loan.

You will need to tell us about your development plans and business finances as part of our decision-making process.

Contact us by email

fundingenquiries@homesengland.gov.uk

Contact us by phone

Telephone: 0300 1234 500

Contact us by post

Home Building Fund - Infrastructure Loans
Homes England
10 South Colonnade

Canary Wharf

London

E14 4PU

‘Know your customer’ guidance

Documents we may need to see about you and your company.

Costs of a loan

We will apply interest rates to the loan at commercial rates. We will also charge you an arrangement fee.

Read how we use credit scoring to assess your creditworthiness and collateralisation.

Financial crime compliancy: policy statement

Information about our anti-money laundering and anti-fraud programmes, and our zero tolerance approach to bribery and corruption.

Updates to this page

Published 2 February 2022

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