TWO Bradford housing schemes will each get £1.3m in national funding – although few details of the projects have so far been released.
The Brownfield Housing Fund is a multi-million pound pot of cash awarded to West Yorkshire by Government to help kick start stalled housing developments.
In Bradford, cash has so far been awarded to projects including the redevelopment of a derelict building in the Goitside Conservation Area and the development of family homes on former high rise flat sites off Manchester Road and in Bingley.
A new report by West Yorkshire Combined Authority – which is responsible for the fund locally, has revealed a further two projects in the city will soon be awarded funding.
They are the Canal 30 scheme, a “private sector scheme aimed at transforming derelict mill” that will create around 70 apartments.
The other is a “100 per cent affordable housing scheme” on Rushton Avenue that will create around 30 homes.
Both schemes are expected to receive £1.3m.
The projects are listed in an agenda for the Combined Authority’s Place, Regeneration and Housing Committee, which meets on Thursday.
The report gives little detail on either scheme, and when the Telegraph & Argus asked the Authority for more information a spokesman said: “More information will be available as the schemes progress.”
However, Canal 30 has the same name as a previously approved mill conversion plan for Bradford city centre that dates back several years.
Plans to convert 28-32 Canal Road into apartments date back to 2015, and despite the proposals receiving the backing of Bradford Council, the building remains derelict.
The scheme has gone through a number of changes, with the most recent, by the Canal 30 Apartment Company, being to create 70 apartments through refurbishing the building and building new extensions.
The building was built in 1884 by the Fattorini family who became famous for providing jewellery to the Queen and other esteemed clients, as well as creating the design for the FA Cup.
Rushton Avenue is in Thornbury, near the Morrisons. Although the Combined Authority has provided no detail of this scheme, there is a large brownfield site at the end of the street.
The Brownfield Housing Fund was set up to allow developers to move ahead with projects that would otherwise be unviable.
Sites that would be eligible for funding include ones where development has previously been proposed – but may have stalled due to the high cost of developing the site.
The report said these two Bradford schemes will be among five across West Yorkshire that will be approved by officers, rather than committee members, as the committee will not be meeting again until June. The projects require the funding decisions to be made before then.
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