The Government has today announced allocations totalling over £8.4bn to be used to fund new supply of affordable housing, with over £315m being allocated to Yorkshire and The Humber.

The allocations are part of overall regional allocations drawn from the £10.4bn for housing investment made available through the Regional Housing Pot over the next 3 years.

The funding will support the Housing Green Paper commitment to provide at least 70,000 affordable homes a year by 2010-11 of which 45,000 will be social rented homes.

Housing Minister Yvette Cooper said social and affordable housing must now meet the needs of the twenty-first century too.

"70 per cent of households are now home owners, and 90 per cent say they want to be. As a government we want to widen access to home ownership and help more people build up assets. But home ownership won't be sustainable for everyone. And for some it is a real struggle to find an affordable stable home in the private sector," said the minister.

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For existing housing, around £2bn will be used to support projects nationally (£244m in Yorkshire and The Humber) to improve the stock condition alongside wider regeneration projects. This funding will underpin the continuing commitment to ensure all local authority owned social rented stock achieves the decent homes standard by 2010 and to secure significant improvements in private sector housing.

The allocations announced today also incorporate proposals for the regional distribution of an additional £97m for Gypsy and Traveller Site Grant, of which £6m is proposed for the provision of new and refurbished sites for Gypsies and Travellers in Yorkshire and The Humber. The Grant aims to help local authorities address the current shortfall in provision and so tackle the problem of unauthorised camping.

The allocations reflect advice from the Regional Assemblies and the Mayor in London subject to the need to deliver against the important national priorities identified in the Housing Green Paper. The Regions' advice will also inform the Housing Corporation's work as they develop the National Affordable Housing Programme for 2008-11. Ministers have pledged to continue to work closely with the Regions as the programme is delivered over the next three years in order to ensure maximum outputs which reflect regional needs.

(GK/JM)