Persimmon seeks £25m from £400m government Kickstart fund

Housebuilder Persimmon is asking for £25m from the Government’s £400m Kickstart Housing Delivery Programme to resurrect twenty stalled housing schemes.

A Persimmon spokeswoman told ContractJournal.com the firm’s twenty schemes “are spread around the country” and all have full planning permission.

Other firms expected to bid for funds from the scheme include Taylor Wimpey, Barratts, Berkeley Homes and numerous Registered Social Landlords (RSLs).

Bidding for Kickstart funding closes today. Bidders will be told if their bids have been successful at the end of July.

The programme, which was announced in the Budget, has a brief to unlock housing schemes hit by the credit crisis. It is overseen by the Homes and Communities Agency.  However only schemes that start on site within the financial year 2009/10 will be eligible. They must also be high quality housing projects that include a mix of tenures. The initiative is expected to deliver up to 9,000 new homes.

Funding will be open to private sector developers as well as public sector housing organisations. Under the deal the HCA will look to recovering its imvestment and a share in any profits from rising house prices once the market improves.