COUNCILLORS are being asked to approve a further £9.5m to fund new homes across Cherwell.

The cash will be taken out of Cherwell District Council’s capital reserves to help fund its £16m self build programme Build! The council has already put £7m into the scheme which will see 250 homes built on 26 sites across the district.

Originally, the council was planning to go into partnership with registered providers, but a report said grants to those providers had been reduced in recent years.

A report for the full council, which meets tonight, said: “The primary benefits therefore, of the local authority acting in this direct developer role include more certainty around delivery, better control of construction and professional costs, the use of off-site construction methods (where these are deemed appropriate), and of course tight control of the overall investment process.”

Work on the homes must be completed by next March to ensure the council receives an undisclosed grant from the Government’s Homes and Communities Agency.

The report says the council should generate £19.1m through selling the properties and will get a New homes Bonus grant of £1.5m over a six year period.

District councillor Debbie Pickford, the lead member for housing said: “We have got a lot of derelict parcels of land that nobody wanted to do anything with and we identified them and are now building 250 houses, mostly affordable.”

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