Only a third of the £4.2bn Housing Infrastructure Fund aimed at increasing housebuilding and unlocking hundreds of thousands of new homes has so far been spent, a Freedom of Information request has revealed. 

The FOI request made by local government researcher Jack Shaw, the findings of which were reported in the Financial Times (FT) yesterday, found that £1.3bn out of the £4.2bn pot has been spent since the fund was created.

The Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) was set up in 2017 to accelerate housebuilding by providing local authorities with grant funding needed for land preparation, transport infrastructure and education facilities in order to unlock development sites.