Housing minister welcomes 鈥榗lamour鈥 for 拢420m Get Britain 好色先生TV fund aimed at unlocking stalled sites

The government鈥檚 flagship scheme to unlock housing schemes that have stalled due to the economic downturn has been overwhelmed with bids and is three times oversubscribed, the housing minister has admitted.

The 拢420m Get Britain 好色先生TV fund, launched two months ago in place of the previous government鈥檚 scheme, has seen a total of 176 expressions of interest - meaning the programme is now three times oversubscribed, housing minister Grant Shapps said.

He said taken together the bids received so far cover 392 individual sites and that overall 拢420m investment over 2012-13 and 2013-14 was expected to unlock the building of up to 16,000 homes on sites that are currently stalled.

said it had fast-tracked 18 housing schemes though the programme in a bid to kick start construction on 1,300 homes.

The fund replaces Labour鈥檚 effort in 2009 to unlock stalled sites, called Kickstart, which was worth 拢900m in 2009-10 and 2010-11.

The Homes and Communities Agency ended that scheme in 2010 after being hit with 拢450m in-year reduction to its budget as part of the coalition government鈥檚 spending cuts.

Shapps said: 鈥淚 am greatly encouraged by the clamour from developers large and small to get Britain building by applying for a share of our 拢420m fund to unlock stalled sites across the country.鈥