PLANNING experts will be brought in to find out how the building of homes in Derby city centre can be speeded up – thanks to a £213,000 Government grant.
Details on how the money will help are sketchy.
But it has become available through the city centre’s new Housing Zone status, which has also meant developers can bid for a slice of a £200 million pot of cash to help with clearing contaminated land and demolition.
Councillor Martin Rawson, cabinet member responsible for city centre regeneration, said experts would be “thinking outside the box” to see how sites like the long-derelict Friar Gate Goods Yard could be brought forward for houses.
Other key sites within the housing zone are the Castleward regeneration project, where 840 homes are being built between the city centre and the railway station, and the former Derbyshire Royal Infirmary site.
It was revealed in May that the ex-hospital site had been bought by Nightingale Quarter Estates.
It is unclear what it will do with the 18.4 acres, which still has existing outline planning permission to build a supermarket and 400 homes.
Mr Rawson said the council would ask Nightingale Quarter Estates and Compendium Living, who are behind the Castleward development, how the £213,000 could be used to help them. A council spokeswoman said the money would be used to “identify any issues the key development sites face which could be hampering their progress and for additional resource to aid the delivery of new homes”.
Friar Gate Goods Yard, the size of eight football pitches, has been derelict for nearly 50 years.
Planning permission was granted to the site’s owner, Clowes, in October 2011 for 140 homes, offices, cafes and shops, while turning its grade two-listed bonded warehouse on the site into a supermarket.
In June last year, Clowes revealed that the downturn in financial fortunes for Britain’s supermarkets had prevented progress. Clowes also faces costs due to the need to retain protected historic buildings on the site.
Mr Rawson said the planning experts could work with organisations like Historic England or the National Trust to find “imaginative solutions” to such problems.
Another project that could benefit from the funding is a council scheme which aims to convert vacant land and disused offices into homes by offering loans and grants to housing companies.
Derby North MP Amanda Solloway said more homes on brownfield sites in the city centre would help reduce the need for controversial development on the edge of the city.
She said: “This is exactly the kind of scheme that I spoke to the Housing Minister [Brandon Lewis] about when I invited him to visit Friar Gate Goods Yard towards the end of last year.”
A Department for Communities and Local Government spokeswoman said developers had applied for slices of the £200 million but that she could not give details. She said councils would also soon be able to bid for cash from the £1.2 billion “starter home fund” to help kick-start development on brownfield sites.