The deal will unlock around 22,600 much-needed homes over the next 20 years - delivering as many as 60,000 jobs - and brings a brownfield site back into use. The first phase at Eastern Quarry, Ebbsfleet, in Kent will deliver 1,500 homes as part of wider plans for Kent Thameside.
Developers Land Securities have invested more than £100 million in developing the site. However, plans have been delayed amid concerns over the cost and the need for further investment in transport improvements. But now, after work by Housing Minister Grant Shapps and Transport Minister Mike Penning with Kent councils, the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and the developers, builders could be on site as early as next summer with the first homes set to be completed by December 2013.
Kent County Council and Dartford and Gravesham Borough Councils worked closely with the Department for Transport and the Highways Agency to reduce costs of the transport programme and to agree how funding could be unlocked. Under the arrangements agreed, the Department for Transport and Highways Agency will begin development work on two major junction improvements and will work with Kent County Council and the Kent Thameside partners in managing the transport investment programme necessary to deliver the new developments.
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Dartford and Gravesham Borough Councils will ensure that contributions from Land Securities and other sites are provided to support the transport improvement programme, and that they and Kent County Council use a proportion of their New Homes Bonus payments to contribute to the programme.
The deal reached between these three councils and Land Securities on the specific planning obligations - known as a Section 106 agreement - will enable work to start. Land Securities will contribute nearly £25 million towards the Homes and Roads Programme, through to completion of 4,500 homes on the site by 2020.
Mr Shapps said that this illustrated the benefits of Government, local authorities and developers working together to unlock progress on stalled larger sites and signalled that he was keen to build on this approach in the future.
Mr Shapps said: "It's frustrating that while the need for homes in Kent and the surrounding area has continued to grow, the Kent Thameside development - offering the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes - has been stuck on the drawing board for a whole decade. So I'm delighted that we're finally taking steps forward to get builders on site and work finally started. This historic deal offers a double benefit to the local area, a commitment to improve the road network but also to deliver over 22,600 properties over the next 20 years - with the first homes set to be completed in little over a year from now.
"After such a delay, like local residents I look forward to seeing the properties being built, the jobs being created and, in the near future, the first families moving into their new homes."
(CD/GK)
