Mayor may have to give back £1m as developer pulls out

RACE AGAINST TIME TO FIND ANOTHER PARTNER FOR BROWNFIELD HOUSING CASH

- By JOSEPH CONNOLLY

MORE than £1 million of funding given to the East Midlands Combined Authority (EMCCA) by the government may have to be given back after a housing developer withdrew from a funding scheme.

A plan for 113 houses, due to be built on land near Nottingham City Hospital by developer MyPad, in conjunction with Nottingham Community Housing Association (NCHA), was selected to receive a £1.1m cash injection from EMCCA's Brownfield Housing Fund.

Brownfield housing sites are those which have previously been built on but are abandoned or derelict, as opposed to greenfield sites, which have never had any development on.

EMCCA's brownfield fund, which was announced in 2024, is only being afforded to developments that would not be able to go ahead without it - typically, ones that have been planned before but had fallen through or "stalled" due to a lack of investment.

The City Hospital development, off Arnside Road in Bestwood, was the only confirmed scheme in Nottingham to receive a share of the pot and was only granted planning permission from Nottingham City Council on November 19. But after it was reassessed for viability, it was found to no longer be eligible for the fund.