Funds to support housing projects

Local authorities will be able to decide how to spend the grants

Local authorities planning ambitious housing projects in the South East have been awarded £93m of government money to help provide infrastructure.

Housing Minister Margaret Beckett announced that 12 areas will benefit from the funding.

Parts of Kent, West Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire will be given grants of up to £18m over the next two years.

They will fund essential services needed to accompany new home building.

These include transport links, schools, town centre regeneration, and the provision of parks.

Under the Growth Points scheme in Kent, Ashford will receive more than £15.5m, Dover £2.6m, and Maidstone more than £5.1m.

'Long-term need'

A further £4.8m has been awarded to Reigate and Banstead in Surrey and £3.2m to Shoreham in West Sussex.

Milton Keynes will receive more than £18m and Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, more than £9.4m.

The Partnership for Urban South Hampshire (PUSH) has been offered more than £17m, and a further £5.7m will go to Basingstoke, Hampshire.

More than £5.4m has been awarded to Reading in Berkshire, £3.7m to Oxford and £2.3m to Didcot, Oxfordshire.

Housing Minister Margaret Beckett said: "In these difficult economic times we must not lose sight of the long-term need to build more homes.

"Yet if the support for these new homes is not in place, their construction will be delayed when we need them most, hampering the economy's recovery."

The money is to go to the local authorities with the "most ambitious growth plans", who will be able to decide how to spend it.

She said the new infrastructure would stop new homes becoming a "burden" on resources.

Sir Bob Kerslake, chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency said: "This funding will play a significant part in helping growth areas deliver not only more homes, but the vital infrastructure that is needed to underpin new communities."