A housebuilder has secured more than £11m worth of funding for new home schemes in the region including Chester and Hooton.

Stewart Milne Homes North West has been granted the £11.5m funding from Homes England through the Home Building Fund to allow the delivery of almost 500 new homes in the north west with a development value of £125m.

The funding will enable the housebuilder to start new developments in Chester, Prescot, Congleton and Hooton which will help to address the housing shortfall.

Working in partnership with Homes England, Stewart Milne Homes North West secured the loan from the new £3billion fund which aims to increase the number of new homes being built across the country with a target of delivering 300,000 new homes per annum.

A total of 500 units, comprising 125 affordable homes, are planned in these new developments, two of which will get under way immediately with the remainder to follow in the next two months.

Stewart Milne Homes North West is a division of Stewart Milne Group whose chief executive, Glenn Allison, believes the fund is a major step forward in addressing the country’s long-term housing challenge.

Glenn Allison, chief executive of Stewart Milne Group
Glenn Allison, chief executive of Stewart Milne Group

He said: “Private, independent developers cannot make the up-front investment required to close the gap between supply and demand quickly enough.

“This funding will ensure we are able to deliver out-standing new communities for local residents and help deliver the additional housing that is required to meet the UK government’s targets.”

Nigel Barclay, head of SME Investment at Homes England, said: “Stewart Milne Homes are showing real ambition with their plans to build another 500 new homes across the North West including 125 affordable homes across a mix of tenures which will help make a real difference to local people.”

Stewart Milne Homes North West, established in 2006, has doubled the number of units delivered in the North West in the last 12 months and increased its direct workforce in the region from 65 to 85.

Paul Challinor, managing director of Stewart Milne Homes North West, added: “Working with Homes England we will deliver these 500 homes in the next two years.

“We will also seek to further increase our housebuilding through the acquisition of larger sites in prime residential locations in the North West of England.”