Pendle News Room

“We’ve been included in a Pennine Lancashire Housing Zone, one of 26 zones across the country which are being targeted with additional funding,” announced Councillor Mohammed Iqbal, Leader of Pendle Council.

“This long-awaited news is welcome as it could help us get special funding towards the cost of unlocking some areas of brownfield land and challenging sites along the M65 corridor for housing,” he said. 

Pendle Council can now bid into a new capacity building fund which has just been announced by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

“We are acting fast and getting an early bid in to the government by 9 December, with the aim of unlocking some funds,” he said.

Danielle Gillespie, Executive Director at the Homes And Communities Agency said:

“We’ve been working closely with Pendle Council in a bid to gain Housing Zones status and access the additional funding. 

“We can now work even more closely together to help bring forward brownfield sites for housing developments. 

“The new designation could mean that Pendle can submit proposals for new areas for housing which were not feasible before,” she added.

“Brownfield sites can be very costly to clear before development can start, which is why developers often don’t come forward, ” Councillor Iqbal explained.

“Getting planning permission has also been a barrier to developers, as there’s a high cost to getting the infrastructure into these sites so that they can be transformed into great places to live,” he said.

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