£12m cash handed to south for housing (From Daily Echo)

£12m cash handed to south for housing

5:30am Thursday 2nd February 2012 in News By Tom Moseley, Parliamentary Correspondent

MILLIONS of pounds have been handed to Hampshire's leaders to tackle the county's "affordable housing crisis".

Housing Minister Grant Shapps confirmed £12.2m would be handed to Solent Local Enterprise Partnership, which covers the Southampton and Portsmouth areas.

It comes after a week in which the squeeze on housing Southampton was raised in Parliament and campaigners pointed to lengthy waiting lists for affordable homes.

Officials said the cash could would be used to "unlock sites for housebuilding blighted by poor infrastructure". This could include improving roads to cope with new housing.

Local Enterprise Partnerships are new business-led organisations in charge of driving economic development.

Mr Shapps also confirmed £2.4m of payments to Hampshire councils previously announced under the "new homes bonus" scheme. Southampton City Council will receive around £1.8m as reward for the new homes built in the past year.