AN injection of £75 million has been pumped into regeneration plans for Purfleet-on-Thames and will be used to create the infrastructure required to support plans for 2,850 new homes in the town.

The cash has been secured from the Housing Infrastructure Fund which is supporting the £1 billion overall regeneration project for Purfleet that includes a new town centre, rail station and media village alongside health and educational facilities

A bid for the cash was submitted to Homes England in 2018 by Thurrock Council in conjunction with development partner Purfleet Centre Regeneration Limited (PCRL), a joint venture between Swan Housing Association and developer Urban Catalyst and the council.

The funding will be used by PCRL to pay for key infrastructure provision in the early phases of development, including new roads and a pedestrian and vehicular bridge over the railway line. This will allow the existing level crossing to be closed and an upgraded railway station to be delivered.

The funding will also support land acquisition, remediation and site preparation works.

Work has now started on preparatory work and the main infrastructure works will commence next month and will continue for approximately three years.

A start has just been made to work to create 61 new family homes on the former Cornwll House car park, a children's play area, and ensuing work will see the reinstatement of public access to Hollow Woods.

The HIF funding for Purfleet-on-Thames was first announced in March this year by Chancellor Rishi Sunak and the legal work to make it happen has now been concluded.

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The overall regeneration scheme proposes delivery of a new town centre complete with shops and restaurants and the new railway station.

Up to 2,850 new homes will be provided as well, alongside an integrated medical centre, improved transport infrastructure and a new primary school.

The plans, approved in December 2019, also include a 1m sq. ft. 'media village' to support the UK's booming TV and film industry. Later phases are planned to deliver a higher/further education campus creating leading facilities with a focus on health and the creative arts.

Chairman of PCRL Sir Tim Laurence said: "The HIF funding is a major milestone in the regeneration of Purfleet-on-Thames. It will allow us to upgrade the town's transport links and pave the way for us to deliver thousands of new high quality homes.

"Infrastructure investment like this will be crucial to unlocking the potential of regeneration projects across the UK and to meeting the government's ambitious house-building targets.

"We look forward to starting on-site with the infrastructure works in 2021 and moving one step closer to realising our vision for a greener, healthier and safer Purfleet-on-Thames."

The Housing Infrastructure Fund is administered and monitored by the government's housing agency, Homes England. The programme is helping to deliver up to 300,000 new homes across England by providing local authorities with grant funding for new infrastructure, to unlock homes in areas of greatest housing demand.

Sophie White, Homes England's Director of Infrastructure Grants, said: "We are committed to working with ambitious local authority partners seeking to meet their local housing needs through delivery of key infrastructure.

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"Our multimillion-pound funding in the Purfleet-on-Thames scheme will help to address the complex infrastructure requirements and constraints associated with the development. This will in turn help unlock the housing sites and allow the Council and its development partner PCRL to deliver their vision for the town centre and much needed housing growth."