The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has issued the draft contract Heads of Terms and a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to further help developers prepare their bids for the £420 million Get Britain Building programme.

The new programme, part of the Government's housing strategy and managed by the HCA, was launched on 22 December, and will enable work to start on stalled sites with planning permission. The programme will unlock up to 16,000 new homes by December 2014.

Get Britain Building is intended to address difficulties in accessing development finance faced by some house builders and to help bring forward sites where viability is marginal by sharing risk. It will operate by making loans available to projects on commercial rates, or taking equity stakes to share risk.

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Claire O'Shaughnessy, Head of Land and Regeneration, said: "We have had a lot of interest from the sector so far, with developers of all sizes across the country getting in touch to discuss how the programme can support their stalled sites.

"The FAQs and the Heads of Terms published today will add an extra level of detail and support to potential bidders. We are also interested in talking to potential bidders about the approaches to investment recovery described in the prospectus – including investment recovery across a number of phases in a multi-phase project and investment in private rented units."

Organisations have until 30 January 2012 to submit an Expression of Interest, which will be assessed by the HCA liaising with local authorities through February and early March. Shortlisted projects will be invited to enter a due diligence process with final decisions and contracts expected from May.

Work is anticipated starting up on sites across the country from June.

(CD/GK)