WMCA Housing & Regeneration Fund

WMCA Housing & Regeneration Fund — EoI

Offers brownfield housing support in the West Midlands for developers demonstrating market need and affordable home delivery.

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Housing and Regeneration Fund is a £200 million grant program designed to unlock housing-led development and quality placemaking across the seven local authority areas that comprise the WMCA: Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, and Walsall. The fund aims to deliver over 12,000 homes in total, with a minimum of 2,400 affordable dwellings. WMCA acts explicitly as the funder of last resort — applicants must demonstrate that their scheme cannot proceed without public subsidy due to market failure, as defined under HM Treasury guidance. Funding amounts are negotiated per scheme; no per-project minimum or maximum is published.

Eligible applicants are private and public sector investors and developers with proven delivery track records. The scheme must be located within the WMCA boundary, must involve brownfield remediation, and must commit to delivering at least 20% affordable homes as part of the total housing output. Applications proceed through a five-stage process: pre-application discussion with the dedicated WMCA team, formal Expression of Interest, full funding application, governance and approval through the Single Assurance Framework, and delivery and monitoring against agreed milestones. The program operates on a rolling basis with no published annual deadline; enquiries can begin at any time through the online pre-application form.

WMCA holds over £1 billion in devolved housing and land funds secured since 2018, of which the £200 million pot is the current headline instrument. Preference is given to schemes that demonstrate alignment with WMCA's regeneration priorities, use of local SMEs and supply chains, and high benefit-cost ratios. Developers considering this fund should initiate the pre-application conversation early, as scheme viability assessment and market failure demonstration are central to the application and are best developed collaboratively with the WMCA Housing, Property and Regeneration team.