HANDFORTH will be given more than £21 million to provide infrastructure for The North Cheshire Garden Village.

The £21.7 million will be spent on road improvement works, utilities update and remediation.

The cash injection – the second in as many months – was announced today, Wednesday, by Chancellor Philip Hammond in his Spring Statement to Parliament.

Tatton MP Esther McVey welcomed the announcement saying ensuring infrastructure was in place is key.

She said: “This is a fantastic amount of money and is vital to ensure infrastructure is in place.

“I have had meetings in recent weeks with Government officials and Local Government Secretary James Brokenshire about this, and stated that house building, while inevitable, cannot happen without the right provision and infrastructure in place, and this money will go a long way to ensuring that happens.

“I am delighted James Brokenshire listened and realised money was needed now for this scheme.”

The settlement is situated to the east of the A34 opposite Handforth Dean.

According to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government £6.6 million has been allocated for improvement works to some junctions of the A34 to provide access points, £6 million for provision of new village high street and key distributor roads, £4.4 million for replacement of the existing A34 footbridge with a more accessible design, £2.2 million for extension and diversion of the current utilities network and a final £2.5 million for land remediation.

Housing Minister Kit Malthouse said: “I am pleased to confirm we will be supporting the North Cheshire Garden Village Handforth Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) bid for £21.7 million.

“This is one of the successful HIF Forward Funding projects we have announced, part of a £5.5 billion fund to drive the delivery of new homes through infrastructure investment.

“All successful HIF forward funding bids are subject to bespoke conditions, which we will be discussing with the local authority.”

Today’s announcement follows a previous award of £188,000 announced in December to help with dedicated staff resources, landscape work, marketing and branding.

The funding bid was submitted by Cheshire East Council.