Councils Bite into New Homes Bonus

More than 70 per cent of councils in England have not spent their share of £200 million new homes bonus cash on rewarding their communities. The bonus, which sees the government match the council tax on any new properties for the first six years, was designed to incentivise communities to support development by providing or improving local facilities. However, following freedom of information requests to all 349 councils which received the bonus last April, just 29 per cent are using the cash to support housing development or other community projects. Of the 331 local authorities that responded, 54 per cent said the money had been allocated to the general council fund and 18 per cent had not made a decision on how it would be spent. Read more on Inside Housing.