County Durham Regeneration & Investment Briefing

Funding, places and delivery. A briefing for the organisations bringing forward homes and regeneration across Durham City, Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor and the wider county.

Dates and decisions to watch

Figures in this briefing cover different programmes, geographies and periods. They should not be added into a single county investment total.

The funding landscape

Up to £46 billion over ten years

Homes England and its subsidiary, the National Housing Bank, have up to £46 billion to deploy across England to 2036. These are the principal streams. [1]

The joint Investment Prospectus, published on 31 March 2026 ahead of the Bank's opening on 1 April, brings grant, land and finance into one framework. The Bank aims to attract more than £50 billion of additional private capital over the decade.

*The prospectus describes the agency's share as £3.1bn, subject to final confirmation. These are programme envelopes, not a ring-fenced allocation to County Durham.

Programme milestones

Grant, land and finance (products and routes)

Which support fits a scheme depends less on its size than on what is holding it up: a funding gap, a difficult site, or the tenure of the homes to be delivered. [1]

Two grant routes in the North East. Land and infrastructure grant is expected to come first through NECA's Mayor's Brownfield Housing Fund or the integrated settlement. Social and Affordable Homes Programme grant remains administered by Homes England and is not devolved to NECA. The National Housing Bank makes its own finance decisions while working alongside the agency. [1, see regions/north-east.md]

Regional routes: North East

Regional routes: see regions/north-east.md for the Combined Authority's devolved housing and land funds, the integrated settlement, Mayoral Development Zones, the SAHP first-wave regional figures and the regional skills offer.

NECA has used Mayoral Development Zones, not Mayoral Development Corporations. The Durham City zone (Aykley Heads / Durham Innovation District) carries £27m and about 400,000 sq ft of workspace across four phases — employment-led, not housing-led, and separate from the housing routes below. [see regions/north-east.md]

Who decides what (decisions and public contacts)

1. Homes England / National Housing Bank — Final SAHP funding and contractual decisions; the Bank assesses its finance investments. [1,30]
2. North East Combined Authority (NECA) — Regional priorities, tenure mix and strategic priorities for SAHP; Mayor's Brownfield Housing Fund; the integrated settlement; Mayoral Development Zones. [see regions/north-east.md]
3. Durham County Council — Local housing need, planning authority, council land and its own Council House Delivery Programme; accountable body for Pride in Place across Spennymoor, Peterlee East, Stanley South and Crook North & Tow Law. [5,6,7,8,9,20]
4. Four Pride in Place neighbourhood boards — All Together for Spennymoor Board (phase 1); Peterlee East, chaired by Nik Welsh, executive director for communities and customers at believe housing; Stanley South, chaired by Paul Fiddaman, chief executive of Karbon Homes; Crook North & Tow Law, chaired by Mary Hall, a local resident of more than 20 years. All three phase 2 chairs were appointed through an open recruitment process. [5,7,8,9,36,37]
5. Development and delivery partners — believe housing (stock-transfer RP for County Durham, active with Vistry and Karbon Homes, and a member of Karbon's first-wave SAHP consortium); Karbon Homes Limited and Vistry Homes Limited, both first-wave SAHP strategic partners in their own right; T Manners & Sons (council's own delivery contractor). [2,20,21,22,23,37]

Public routes for the next conversation

A useful first enquiry names the site, landowner, proposed use, delivery lead, funding gap and next decision.

Accessing programme grant: a route for smaller providers

• Continuous Market Engagement — Open for individual schemes and portfolios while funding remains available. Designed to accommodate smaller partners, new entrants and complex projects. [31]
• Strategic partnerships — Programme-level allocations. The initial bidding round closed on 15 April 2026; future rounds will be announced. [30]

Before a grant application

Organisations need Homes England Investment Partner qualification to receive grant. Homes England's strategic priorities for established mayoral strategic authority areas — which include the North East — set the shape of a bid: town-centre and neighbourhood regeneration, council-led delivery, community-led housing, low-carbon homes and at least 60% Social Rent. [33]

The County Durham Plan, adopted 21 October 2020, set a local housing need requirement of 1,308 dwellings a year. A review published in September 2025 records that the government's revised standard method now gives a local housing need figure of 2,011 dwellings a year — a near-54% increase — and confirms a new County Durham Plan is in preparation to respond to it. As at 19 September 2026 the new Plan has not been adopted; the 1,308-a-year figure remains the adopted policy requirement. [17,18]

Places and programmes (borough programmes)

Bishops Park, Bishop Auckland — 331 homes, Believe Housing / Vistry

Vistry Partnerships North East, trading locally as Linden Homes, is delivering 331 homes near Auckland Park on the edge of Bishop Auckland, on a site earmarked for housing since 2007 with consent granted in 2011. Believe Housing has purchased 100 of the homes for affordable rent and Rent to Buy, with an option on a further 100; the remainder are sold privately. A first phase of 99 homes (49 private sale, 20 shared ownership, 30 affordable rent) completed in a prior year. Development value is put at £60.4m; full build-out is expected to complete October 2026. Vistry is also contributing over £325,000 towards Coundon Gate Roundabout improvements. [22]

Horden Masterplan — 100+ homes, £10.7m combined

Durham County Council's regeneration of Horden's "Numbered Streets" in East Durham gained a further £4.5m from the North East Combined Authority in September 2024, on top of £6.2m already committed by the council — a combined £10.7m. The masterplan targets more than 100 new two- and three-bedroom family homes, including council housing, plus walking and cycling routes to Peterlee, Horden station and the Durham Heritage Coast; options for a care facility, shops and business space are being explored. Initial phase approved by Cabinet in January 2024. [19]

Council House Delivery Programme — 73 homes on three consented sites

Durham County Council is delivering new council housing on land it already owns, working with contractor T Manners & Sons: Greenwood Avenue, Burnhope (32 mixed homes, bungalows to four-bedroom houses, starting autumn 2025, completion autumn 2026); Portland Avenue, Seaham (33 mixed homes, starting summer 2025, completion winter 2026); and Merrington View, Spennymoor (8 one-bedroom homes using modern methods of construction, completion winter 2026). Funding sources for the programme were not verified in the source checked. [20]

Karbon Homes / Believe Housing partnership — 115 homes, £28.5m (prior programme)

Karbon Homes and Believe Housing announced in January 2026 a £28.5m partnership to deliver 115 affordable homes across five County Durham sites, mostly for social rent with some rent-to-buy and shared ownership. Believe Housing accessed £10.8m of this from Karbon's own Strategic Partnership with Homes England. This is funded under the Affordable Homes Programme 2021–2026 — the predecessor programme to SAHP 2026–2036 — and should not be read as evidence of a new first-wave SAHP award in County Durham; the five sites were not named in the source checked. [23]

Not reconciled with the above

The homes figures above are scheme-level and should not be summed with the County Durham Plan's district-wide housing requirement figures, which already contain future supply from these and other sites. [17,18]

Pride in Place: four neighbourhoods, two cohorts

County Durham has four Pride in Place neighbourhoods — Spennymoor, Peterlee East, Stanley South and Crook North & Tow Law — each carrying its own up to £20 million over ten years and its own board. Do not sum the four into a single county total: they are four distinct ten-year allocations in different cohorts. [4,5,6,7,8,9,10]

County Durham does not appear in the 20 March 2026 phase 2 expansion methodology note (40 neighbourhoods plus Wales): all four County Durham areas were selected in earlier cohorts, so no fifth County Durham neighbourhood is expected from that list. [14]

Pride in Place Impact Fund — no County Durham entry found

Neither the 2025/26 determination nor the 2026/27 determination lists "Durham" or "County Durham" in Annex A. Each annex lists 94 authorities, 93 of them at £750,000 and one (Bridgend) at £1,500,000. This absence is a finding for this brief, not an omission: County Durham does not appear to be an Impact Fund recipient in either year, unlike its four Pride in Place neighbourhood allocations above, which are a separate programme in any case. [15,16]

Bring a project that can be delivered

• Need, ownership and consent — Who benefits, land control, delivery lead, consents and dependencies.
• Capital and continuing costs — Works, contingency, asset owner, operating budget and maintenance.

National delivery guidance requires each board to have at least eight members, with at least 51% living or working locally. [34,35]

Local investment and project calls: different pots, different decisions

Do not add these figures together. They are different programmes, geographies and periods, and several relate to different parts of the county.

Homes, partners and local need

The Local Plan number

The County Durham Plan, adopted 21 October 2020, sets a local housing need requirement of 1,308 dwellings a year in Policy 1. [17] A Review of the County Durham Plan 2020, published September 2025, records that the government's revised standard method now produces a local housing need figure of 2,011 dwellings a year for the county and confirms a new Plan is being prepared in response; the 1,308-a-year figure remains the adopted policy requirement as at 19 September 2026, and the two numbers should not be netted against each other to imply a settled shortfall. [18] The council's own Five Year Housing Land Supply Position Statement, published May 2025, sets out the council's most recent published land-supply position against the adopted requirement; its detailed figures were not extracted for this brief. [26]

Named local delivery

These are examples of local activity, not a complete provider list or evidence of a new County Durham SAHP award. The 33-partner table was read line by line against the organisations named above. Four entries build in or around the county: Karbon Homes Limited (2,533 homes, £350.0m), Vistry Homes Limited (3,028 homes, £350.0m), Thirteen Housing Group Limited (2,750 homes, £349.2m) and Newcastle City Council (966 homes, £141.4m). None carries a site or borough breakdown, and none may be read as a County Durham figure. believe housing, the stock-transfer Registered Provider covering County Durham, is not listed in its own right — but Karbon's own release names believe housing, Bernicia, Durham Aged Miners' Homes Association and Livin as members of the consortium Karbon leads under its first-wave partnership, so believe housing sits inside Karbon's entry rather than outside the first wave. [2,22,23,37]

Housing register and homelessness

No current County Durham housing register total, band breakdown or homelessness presentation figures were found in the sources checked for this brief — open. [20]

Delivery and the supply chain

Finding the actual route to work

Durham County Council procures through the NEPO Open Portal, confirmed directly from the council's own "Working with the council" and procurement pages: for procurements above £10,000 the council approaches the market through NEPO Open, one of twelve North East local authorities using the platform, matching the regional page's own position. Registration with NEPO Open is free. [24,25]

Above-threshold notices also appear on Find a Tender (find-tender.service.gov.uk), the national register under the Procurement Act 2023 regime. [24,29]

A funding announcement does not itself create an open invitation to tender: at Bishops Park, Vistry and Believe Housing are already the engaged delivery partners, and supply-chain work there flows through that relationship rather than a fresh council tender.

Skills and delivery capacity

East Durham College and Derwentside College are named as County Durham's construction-trades spoke colleges in the North East's Construction Technical Excellence College network, alongside Northumberland College, Tyne Coast College and the Education Training Collective's Redcar & Cleveland and Stockton Riverside Colleges. [27]

The region's Construction Technical Excellence College is Sunderland College, named 12 August 2025 as one of ten CTECs across England, based at the Housing Innovation and Construction Skills Academy (HICSA) at Riverside Sunderland, backed by national funding with a target of 40,000 trained by 2029. The hub-and-spoke model means East Durham College and Derwentside College are the practical first call for construction training, apprenticeship and work-placement commitments on a County Durham scheme, rather than HICSA itself. [27, see regions/north-east.md]

Sources

Research checked on 19 September 2026.

1. Homes England / National Housing Bank, Investment Prospectus 2026 · source
2. Homes England / MHCLG, "Homes England and government confirm strategic partners...", 25 August 2026 (Karbon Homes Limited 2,533 homes / £350.0m; Newcastle City Council 966 homes / £141.4m) · source
3. MHCLG, "Historic council housebuilding comeback to help families into secure homes", 24 August 2026 — regional funding breakdown: North East £445m estimated Strategic Partnership spend supporting c.3,400 homes · source
4. Durham County Council, "Up to £20m in funding to help three areas in County Durham" · source
5. Durham County Council, Spennymoor Pride in Place Programme · source
6. Durham County Council, "Residents are invited to get involved with funding" · source
7. Durham County Council, Peterlee East Pride in Place Programme · source
8. Durham County Council, Stanley South Pride in Place Programme · source
9. Durham County Council, Crook North/Tow Law Pride in Place Programme · source
10. Durham County Council, Pride in Place programme overview / all four areas [4,5,7,8,9 combined position] · source
11. Durham County Council, "Pride in Place programme to start in Spennymoor" · source
12. Durham County Council, All Together for Spennymoor Board reporting [5,11] · source
13. MHCLG, Pride in Place Programme phase 2: place selection methodology note ("Peterlee East; Stanley South; Crook North & Tow Law") · source
14. MHCLG, Pride in Place Programme phase 2 expansion: place selection methodology note, published 20 March 2026 (no County Durham entry) · source
15. MHCLG, Pride in Place Impact Fund grant determinations 2025–26 (Annex A; no Durham/County Durham entry found) · source
16. MHCLG, Pride in Place Impact Fund grant determinations 2026–27 (Annex A; no Durham/County Durham entry found) · source
17. Durham County Council, Development Plan for County Durham (County Durham Plan, adopted 21 October 2020, 1,308 dwellings a year) · source
18. Durham County Council, Review of the County Durham Plan 2020, September 2025 (revised standard method: 2,011 dwellings a year) · source
19. North East Combined Authority, Horden Masterplan investment announcement, 27 September 2024 · source
20. Durham County Council, Council housing · source
21. MHCLG, Pride in Place Programme phase 1: place selection methodology note ("County Durham | Spennymoor | Spennymoor") · source
22. Housing Digital, "Believe housing and Vistry team up for 331-home County Durham development" · source
23. The Intermediary, "Karbon Homes and believe housing partner to deliver 115 affordable homes in County Durham" · source
24. Durham County Council, Working with the council · source
25. NEPO, Open · source ; supplier registration · source
26. Durham County Council, Five Year Housing Land Supply Position Statement, May 2025 · source
27. East Durham College, "North East Colleges Unite to Build Skills for the Future" (CTEC spoke colleges) · source
28. Durham County Council, About the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) in County Durham · source
29. Find a Tender service · source
30. Homes England, SAHP 2026–2036: strategic priorities in established mayoral strategic authority areas · source
31. Homes England, SAHP Continuous Market Engagement route · source
32. Homes England, SAHP Strategic Partnership route · source
33. Homes England, SAHP 2026–2036 guidance · source
34. MHCLG, Pride in Place programme delivery guidance · source
35. MHCLG, Pride in Place programme prospectus · source
36. Durham County Council, "Pride in Place programme to start in Spennymoor" (independent chairs appointed after open recruitment: Mary Hall, Crook North and Tow Law; Nik Welsh, Peterlee East; Paul Fiddaman, Stanley South) · source
37. believe housing, "believe housing executive becomes chair of Pride in Place Peterlee East" (Nik Welsh, executive director for communities and customers; programme mobilising through 2026 with initial delivery funding anticipated from March 2027) · source ; Karbon Homes, North East housing providers form partnership (Karbon-led SAHP 2026–36 consortium with believe housing, Bernicia, Durham Aged Miners' Homes Association and Livin, sharing £350m / 2,533 homes) · source

For the regional routes ("see regions/north-east.md"), see the full numbered source list in that page's own Sources section (sources 1–25).

Research notes

Verified from primary or council sources

• All four County Durham Pride in Place neighbourhoods checked directly against the primary GOV.UK lists: Spennymoor confirmed phase 1 ("North East | County Durham | Spennymoor", among the 75); Peterlee East, Stanley South and Crook North & Tow Law confirmed phase 2 ("Peterlee East; Stanley South; Crook North & Tow Law" in the September 2025 methodology note); none of the four appears in the 20 March 2026 phase 2 expansion note. [13,14,21]
• Pride in Place Impact Fund checked directly against both determinations' Annex A: no "Durham" or "County Durham" entry found in either 2025/26 or 2026/27 — this is stated as a finding, not assumed. [15,16]
• NEPO Open confirmed as Durham County Council's tender portal directly from the council's own procurement pages, consistent with the regional page. [24,25]
• County Durham Plan (1,308 dwellings a year, adopted 21 October 2020) read from the council's own Development Plan page, and the revised 2,011-a-year figure read from the council's own September 2025 Plan review document. [17,18]
• Karbon Homes Limited's position in the 25 August 2026 first-wave SAHP partner table (2,533 homes, £350.0m) read directly from the release, alongside Vistry Homes Limited, Thirteen Housing Group Limited and Newcastle City Council. [2]
• The Karbon Homes / Believe Housing £28.5m / 115-home partnership was checked against its funding source and found to sit under the Affordable Homes Programme 2021–2026, not the new SAHP first wave — kept separate accordingly. [23]

Not verified / press or incomplete sourcing

• The five sites for the Karbon Homes / Believe Housing 115-home partnership were not named in the source checked.
• Funding sources for the Council House Delivery Programme (Greenwood Avenue, Portland Avenue, Merrington View) were not stated in the council's own page.
• The UK Shared Prosperity Fund successor position for County Durham in 2026/27 is open; only the historic 2022/23–2024/25 allocation (£30,830,613 plus Multiply and Rural England Prosperity Fund) was found.
• East Durham College and Derwentside College's specific role as County Durham's CTEC spoke colleges rests on a single college-sector news source rather than a NECA or Sunderland College page naming them by county; treated as reported, not primary-confirmed for County Durham specifically. [27]

Open items

• No current County Durham housing register total, band breakdown or homelessness presentation figures were found.
• A fourth or fifth largest live scheme beyond the four named here (Bishops Park, Horden Masterplan, Council House Delivery Programme, Karbon Homes/Believe Housing) was not exhaustively searched; a fuller pipeline review would need the council's own housing supply monitoring report.
• Whether County Durham receives any UKSPF successor allocation for 2026/27 remains open.

Blocked or failed URLs

• None encountered a hard block (403/404) during this research session; all primary GOV.UK and durham.gov.uk pages fetched successfully via WebFetch.

Verifier pass, 19 September 2026

• Closed: all three phase 2 board chairs, previously the brief's largest open item. Durham County Council's own news page names Mary Hall (Crook North & Tow Law, a resident of more than 20 years), Nik Welsh (Peterlee East, executive director for communities and customers at believe housing) and Paul Fiddaman (Stanley South, chief executive of Karbon Homes), all appointed through open recruitment; believe housing's own announcement corroborates Welsh and adds that initial delivery funding is anticipated from March 2027. [36,37]
• Corrected, material: the brief said Karbon Homes Limited is "the one North East-active RP" in the first-wave partner table. Reading the table line by line, Vistry Homes Limited (3,028 homes, £350.0m) and Thirteen Housing Group Limited (2,750 homes, £349.2m) are also in it and both build in the county — Vistry is the developer at Bishops Park, the brief's own largest named scheme — and Newcastle City Council (966 homes, £141.4m) is the North East local authority entry. A reader would have acted on the narrower statement. [2]
• Corrected: believe housing was described as "not verified as a direct SAHP strategic partner". It is not listed in its own right, but Karbon's own release names it as a member of the consortium Karbon leads under the first-wave partnership, so it sits inside Karbon's entry rather than outside the programme. [2,37]
• Corrected: Spennymoor is one of the 75 phase 1 towns, not 55, and its phase 1 entry reads "North East | County Durham | Spennymoor". [21]
• Corrected: the Impact Fund annexes list 94 authorities in each year, not 94 and 122; 93 at £750,000 and Bridgend at £1,500,000. County Durham's absence from both years is unchanged and remains the finding. [15,16]
• Corrected: the UKSPF row cited [27,28]; source 27 is a college news page, so the citation is now [28] alone.
• Confirmed unchanged: all four neighbourhoods' cohorts and deadlines re-checked against the three GOV.UK lists (Spennymoor phase 1, no deadline; Peterlee East, Stanley South and Crook North & Tow Law phase 2, 30 November 2026; County Durham absent from the 20 March 2026 expansion list); the County Durham Plan's 1,308 dwellings a year adopted 21 October 2020 against the 2,011 standard-method figure in the September 2025 review; NEPO Open as the procurement portal; the Horden £4.5m NECA / £6.2m council split kept separate.
• Still open, and what was searched: the five sites in the Karbon / believe housing 115-home partnership (the partnership release names none); funding sources for the Council House Delivery Programme (council housing pages); a 2026/27 UKSPF successor allocation (council funding pages and NECA); housing register and homelessness figures.