The Housing Infrastructure Fund grant is an important consideration

  • Without this £29.4m grant the development at St George’s Barracks is financially not viable.
  • The full terms of this grant have never been revealed and the full Council have to vote to accept the grant when the terms are known.
  • £16m is earmarked to pay for the costs of ‘cleaning up’ the Ministry of Defence site when it is vacated. F4R would have expected that MoD would accept this was their direct responsibility, not to be funded from the HIF grant. It begs the question who pays for any clean-up cost over-runs? This leaves only £13m to pay for the promised upfront infrastructure.
  • It is likely that there are obligations associated with the HIF grant that could result in significant financial exposure for Rutland County Council and thus Council Tax payers, which in a worst-case scenario could result in bankruptcy.