Rotherham Regeneration & Investment Briefing

Funding, places and delivery. A briefing for the organisations bringing forward homes and regeneration across Rotherham, Bassingthorpe Farm and the wider borough.

Dates and decisions to watch

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

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 South Yorkshire. Housing and infrastructure grant now runs largely through SYMCA's integrated settlement (its own Brownfield Housing Fund closed March 2026; a £118m successor is expected from April 2026, with no published open call as at 19 September 2026). Social and Affordable Homes Programme grant remains administered by Homes England and is assessed against SYMCA's published strategic priorities, not devolved to SYMCA. The National Housing Bank makes its own finance decisions while working alongside the agency. [1,8 in regions/south-yorkshire.md]

Regional routes: South Yorkshire

Regional routes: see regions/south-yorkshire.md for the Combined Authority's devolved housing and land funds, the integrated settlement, the Don Valley Corridor Mayoral Development Zone, the South Yorkshire Investment Zone, the SAHP first-wave regional figures and the regional skills offer.

South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) is an Established Mayoral Strategic Authority; its integrated settlement began in financial year 2026/27. The Don Valley Corridor Mayoral Development Zone, announced 25 March 2026 by the Mayor with the leaders of Sheffield and Rotherham councils, runs from central Sheffield through Attercliffe and Tinsley to Templeborough, Rotherham Gateway, Rotherham town centre and Bassingthorpe — a 10,500-home, 18,500-job, 30-year ambition, not an award to Rotherham Council or any single site. [see regions/south-yorkshire.md]

Rotherham's own Bassingthorpe Farm — an SPD-approved, roughly 2,000-home "garden community" north of the town centre — and the Rotherham Gateway mainline-station masterplan both sit inside the Don Valley Corridor MDZ and are named SAHP Catalyst Sites; this is site capacity and regional ambition, not a confirmed funding award to either scheme. [26,27,29,30]

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. [1,4]
2. South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority — Regional priorities, tenure mix and strategic priorities for SAHP; the Don Valley Corridor MDZ; the South Yorkshire Investment Zone; the integrated settlement. [see regions/south-yorkshire.md]
3. Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council — Local housing need, planning authority, council land and its own new-build programme (1,000 new council homes by 2027); accountable body for Pride in Place across the borough. [22,9]
4. Two Pride in Place neighbourhood boards — Rotherham Central Pride in Place Board (Chair: Eleanor Lockley, Rotherham East ward resident and Sheffield Hallam University researcher); Pride in Maltby Neighbourhood Board (Maltby East, phase 2), chaired by Warren Carratt with Beverley Ferguson as Vice Chair, working with local MP Jake Richards. [9,10,12,13,42]
5. Development and delivery partners — Great Places Housing Group with Keepmoat (Midland Road); Lindum Group (Olive Lane, Waverley); Rotherham Council seeking a development partner for Bassingthorpe Farm. [28,32,33,34]

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. [5]
• Strategic partnerships — Programme-level allocations. The initial bidding round closed on 15 April 2026; future rounds will be announced. [6]

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 South Yorkshire — set the shape of a bid: 60% Social Rent, 10% supported/specialist housing, and delivery through Catalyst Sites including Bassingthorpe Farm and Rotherham town centre. [7]

Rotherham's adopted Core Strategy (2014) set a housing requirement of 958 dwellings a year (14,371 homes, 2013–2028 plan period). The Core Strategy Partial Update, and with it the proposed 554 dwellings a year, is no longer being progressed: the Council states on its own Call for Sites 2026 consultation that, following the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, the new standard method and the August 2026 NPPF revision, it will instead prepare a new Local Plan to meet Rotherham's needs "into the 2040s", with formal plan-making stages expected to commence later in 2026 under the Local Development Scheme endorsed by Cabinet on 15 September 2025. Five-year supply is measured against the standard method figure (c.1,151 homes a year on the May 2026 tabulation), so that is the number to design to, not 554. [24,25,43, see regions/south-yorkshire.md]

Places and programmes (borough programmes)

Bassingthorpe Farm — around 2,000 homes, SPD approved

Rotherham Council's cabinet approved the Bassingthorpe Farm Supplementary Planning Document on 15 September 2026, guiding a "21st century garden community" north of the town centre: around 2,000 homes, a new primary school, health hub and community facilities, first earmarked for housing in the borough's Local Plan in 2014. New junctions are planned at Fenton Road, Car Hill and Barbot Hill Road, plus bus, walking and cycling links towards the planned mainline station. The Council owns only around 25% of the land and is seeking a development partner; no funding package or phasing programme was retrieved for this brief. Not verified against a live planning consent — this is a masterplan/SPD ambition. [26,27,28]

Rotherham Gateway / town centre masterplan — up to c.400 homes, mainline station pencilled for late 2030

The Rotherham Town Centre Masterplan and the proposed Rotherham Gateway mainline station at Forge Way (part of the Northern Powerhouse Rail conversation) are reported to unlock around 400 new homes adjacent to the station, with early plans suggesting around 225 homes across strategic town centre sites. Delivery is staged from 2026, with a first phase alongside the station 2028–2030 and station opening "pencilled in for late 2030"; a £3m consultant contract was reported in September 2026. Figures are press-reported and not verified against a planning consent or funding award. [29,30,31]

Midland Road, Eastwood — 120 affordable homes, £30m

Great Places Housing Group, investing £30m, with Keepmoat delivering construction, has started work on 120 new social-rent homes on a former bus-depot brownfield site at Midland Road: 4 one-bed, 35 two-bed, 65 three-bed and 16 four-bed homes. Planning permission was secured in December 2025; funding support comes from Homes England's Strategic Partnership (SP2) held by Great Places. First homes are expected to be handed over spring 2027. [32,33]

Olive Lane, Waverley — 50 homes, SYMCA Brownfield Housing Fund

Lindum Group is delivering 50 homes and two commercial units on a 1.5-acre site in the new Waverley neighbourhood, each home fitted with heat pumps, solar panels and EV charging points, as part of SYMCA's now-closed Brownfield Housing Fund (£65m across 45 South Yorkshire developments). Scheme-level grant amount for Olive Lane specifically was not itemised in the sources checked — not verified. [34,35]

Not reconciled with the above

The homes figures above are scheme- or masterplan-level and should not be summed with the borough's district-wide annual housing requirement, whichever figure currently applies (see above). [24,25]

Pride in Place: two neighbourhoods, two cohorts

Rotherham has two Pride in Place neighbourhoods, each carrying its own up to £20 million over ten years — Rotherham Central (phase 1) and Maltby East (phase 2). Do not sum the two into a single "£40m" borough total: they are separate ten-year allocations with separate boards, separate deadlines and separate plans. [9,10,11]

Confirmed 19 September 2026: the 20 March 2026 phase 2 expansion methodology note was read in full — it names 40 English boards and no Rotherham place, and no Yorkshire and the Humber place at all. Maltby East is in the phase 2 cohort proper ("Rotherham | 1 | Maltby East" in the phase 2 methodology note, also read directly), so the 30 November 2026 deadline applies and the expansion cohort's 26 February 2027 does not. [18,19]

Pride in Place Impact Fund — £750,000 in each of two years

Rotherham Council's own cabinet report records £1.5m allocated through the Impact Fund — £750,000 in 2025/26 and £750,000 in 2026/27 — for improvements to community spaces, public spaces and high streets across the borough, with delegated authority sought to allocate the funding against Government criteria within each year's timescale. Cross-checked 19 September 2026: Annex A of both determinations was parsed directly — each lists 94 authorities, and "Rotherham" appears at £750,000 in 2025/26 and £750,000 in 2026/27, confirming the council's £1.5m as two separate annual grants. Do not add the two years, or the Impact Fund, to the £20m Pride in Place allocations above — this is separate money with its own borough-wide allocation. [14,15,16]

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. [20,21]

Local investment and project calls: different pots, different decisions

Do not add these figures together. They are different programmes, geographies and periods.

Homes, partners and local need

The Local Plan number

Rotherham's adopted Core Strategy (2014) sets a housing requirement of 958 dwellings a year (14,371 homes, 2013–2028 plan period); the Sites and Policies Document was adopted in June 2018. The partial Core Strategy update consulted on in 2024, which proposed 554 dwellings a year for a 2025–2040 period, has been abandoned — the Council confirms it will not take that route forward and is preparing a new Local Plan instead. The operative figure for supply purposes is the national standard method (c.1,151 homes a year on the May 2026 tabulation). [24,25,43, see regions/south-yorkshire.md]

A live route in: the Local Plan Call for Sites 2026 is open until 31 December 2026, the deadline having been extended after the August 2026 NPPF revision. Anyone holding a site in the borough that needs an allocation should be in it. [43]

Housing Strategy 2025–2030

Rotherham's Housing Strategy 2025–2030 sets four priorities: building high-quality, sustainable and affordable new homes; improving the safety, quality and energy efficiency of existing homes; preventing homelessness and supporting independent living; and ensuring neighbourhoods are safe, happy and thriving. It sets a target of a minimum 25% of new homes delivered as affordable. The Council's 2018 target of 1,000 new council homes is on schedule for summer 2027, with 750 delivered as at December 2025. Local press reports the Council as "falling behind" on its wider housing target — not verified in detail for this brief. [22,23]

Named local delivery

These are examples of local activity, not a complete provider list or evidence of a new Rotherham-specific SAHP award. But a first-wave SAHP strategic partner is building in the borough: Great Places Housing Association — 2,600 homes and £320.6m in the 25 August 2026 first-wave partner table, read directly — is the developer of the 120 social-rent homes at Midland Road, Eastwood, under its previous-round Homes England Strategic Partnership (SP2). It is the obvious first conversation for affordable delivery in Rotherham. Yorkshire Housing Limited (2,010 homes, £230.0m) and Together Housing Association Limited (3,200 homes, £326.6m) are the other first-wave partners with the clearest Yorkshire operating base, though no Rotherham scheme of theirs was confirmed in the sources checked. Neither point is evidence of a Rotherham-specific 2026–2036 SAHP award: the first-wave table is a national envelope with no site or borough breakdown. [2,32,33]

Housing register and homelessness

No current Rotherham housing register total, band breakdown or homelessness presentation figures were found in the sources checked for this edition — open.

Delivery and the supply chain

Finding the actual route to work

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council's procurement opportunities are published on YORtender (yortender.eu-supply.com/login.asp?B=YORTENDER), confirmed on 19 September 2026 from the council's own page, "Council tenders and contracts" at rotherham.gov.uk/budgets-spending-performance/council-tenders-contracts, which names YORtender as the system through which the majority of its contracts are now tendered and links the same registration URL. The same page publishes the council's contract register (all current contracts, services and spend) and its Procurement Specific Questionnaire and Procurement Act guidance for bidders — worth reading before a first bid. Registration is free. [41]

Above-threshold notices also appear on Find a Tender (find-tender.service.gov.uk), including the Rotherham Construction Partnership (RCP) 5 Framework, running 1 February 2026 to 31 January 2030 — the borough-specific construction framework alongside the regional YORbuild family. [38]

A funding announcement does not itself create an open invitation to tender: at Bassingthorpe Farm, the Council is still seeking a development partner rather than running a live construction tender. [28]

Skills and delivery capacity

RNN Group (Rotherham College, Dearne Valley College and North Notts College) delivers Construction provision including T Levels in Onsite Construction (Bricklaying and Joinery, from September 2023) and Building Services Engineering for Construction (Plumbing, Heating and Electrical Installation, from September 2024), plus Foundation T Levels and a Design, Surveying and Planning route, backed by government capital funding for new T-Level centres at the Rotherham and North Notts campuses. Esh Group is an Employer Partner supporting the construction department since September 2023. [36]

The region's Construction Technical Excellence College is Leeds College of Building, the Yorkshire and the Humber CTEC, one of ten named across England, backed by £100m nationally (£80m capital, £20m revenue) with a target of 40,000 trained by 2029. There is no CTEC inside South Yorkshire; Rotherham College's role as a sub-regional CTEC delivery partner is not verified. [37, see regions/south-yorkshire.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 · source

3. MHCLG, "Historic council housebuilding comeback to help families into secure homes", 24 August 2026 — South Yorkshire £249m / c.2,200 homes · source

4. Homes England, SAHP 2026–2036 guidance · source

5. Homes England, Continuous Market Engagement route · source

6. Homes England, Strategic Partnership route · source

7. Homes England, SAHP 2026–2036: strategic priorities in Established Mayoral Strategic Authority areas · source

8. regions/south-yorkshire.md — full regional routes page and its own numbered sources. · source

9. Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, Pride in Place (overview) · source (still returns HTTP 404 to direct fetch and to ScrapingBee on 19 September 2026, though the page is indexed; use source 44 for the primary record)

10. Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, Pride in Place Phase Two: Maltby East · source

11. Place Yorkshire, "Rotherham set for £20m Pride in Place programme" · source

12. Sarah Champion MP, "Chair of Rotherham Pride in Place Board Appointed", 11 June 2026 · source

13. Rotherham Advertiser, "'Make your voices heard' says new Pride in Place chair" · source

14. Rotherham MBC, Cabinet Report — Pride in Places (Impact Fund allocation) · source

15. MHCLG, Pride in Place Impact Fund grant determinations 2025–26 · source

16. MHCLG, Pride in Place Impact Fund grant determinations 2026–27 · source

17. MHCLG, Pride in Place phase 1 place-selection methodology note · source

18. MHCLG, Pride in Place phase 2 place-selection methodology note · source

19. MHCLG, Pride in Place phase 2 expansion place-selection methodology note · source

20. MHCLG, Pride in Place programme delivery guidance · source

21. MHCLG, Pride in Place programme prospectus · source

22. Rotherham MBC, Rotherham's Housing Strategy 2025–2030 (Appendix 1) · source

23. Rotherham Advertiser, "Rotherham Council falling behind on housing target" · source

24. LSH, "Rotherham's Local Plan and Core Strategy update" · source

25. Rotherham MBC, A guide to the Local Plan · source

26. Yorkshire Post, "Rotherham's Bassingthorpe Farm: Blueprint for '21st century garden community' given green light" · source

27. Rotherham MBC, Decision — Bassingthorpe Farm Supplementary Planning Document · source

28. rothbiz.co.uk, "Development partner search for massive Rotherham greenbelt scheme" · source

29. Red Brick, "Housing-led regeneration in Rotherham town centre is essential..." · source

30. rothbiz.co.uk, "Priority projects for Rotherham Gateway regeneration scheme" · source

31. Rotherham MBC, Rotherham Town Centre Masterplan · source

32. The Star, "Work starts on 120 affordable homes in Rotherham" · source

33. rothbiz.co.uk, "Work starts on £30m affordable homes development in Rotherham" · source

34. rothbiz.co.uk, "First tenants revealed as work starts at Olive Lane" · source

35. SYMCA, "Brownfield Housing Fund ends" · source

36. Rotherham College / RNN Group, "Level up your career with brand-new T Level facilities at RNN Group" · source

37. Leeds College of Building, Construction Technical Excellence College · source

38. Find a Tender, Rotherham Construction Partnership (RCP) 5 Framework, 2025 · source

39. YORtender registration · source

40. regions/south-yorkshire.md, source 28 — YORtender registration and Rotherham guidance (confirms Rotherham MBC publishes all procurement opportunities on YORtender). · source

41. Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, "Council tenders and contracts" (YORtender named as the council's e-tendering system; contract register; Procurement Specific Questionnaire and Procurement Act guide) · source

42. Rotherham MBC, Pride in Place: Maltby — Board Meeting 7 August 2026 minutes (Chair Warren Carratt; Vice Chair Beverley Ferguson; membership) and Board Meeting 18 September 2026 agenda · source · source

43. Rotherham MBC, Local Plan — Call For Sites 2026 (Citizen Space; Core Strategy Partial Update not progressed, new Local Plan into the 2040s, Local Development Scheme endorsed by Cabinet 15 September 2025, deadline extended to 31 December 2026 after the August 2026 NPPF revision) · source

44. Rotherham MBC, "Pride in Place Programme for Rotherham Central" — Regeneration Plan 2025–2035 (Cabinet paper, six themes, delivery from April 2026, further investment plans 2030 and 2033) · source ; Decision — Approval to submit Rotherham's Regeneration Plan to MHCLG · source

For the regional routes ("in regions/south-yorkshire.md"), see the full numbered source list in that page's own Sources section (sources 1–34).

Research notes

Verified from primary or council sources

• SYMCA regional framework (EMSA status, integrated settlement, Don Valley Corridor MDZ, SAHP regional estimate of £249m/c.2,200 homes, Catalyst Sites including Bassingthorpe Farm and Rotherham town centre) taken directly from regions/south-yorkshire.md, itself built on primary GOV.UK/SYMCA sources. [see regions/south-yorkshire.md]
• Rotherham Central Pride in Place: phase 1 status, no plan deadline, and Eleanor Lockley's appointment as Chair (11 June 2026) confirmed via Sarah Champion MP's own announcement and corroborating Rotherham Advertiser coverage. [11,12,13]
• Maltby East Pride in Place: phase 2 status and the Council's own Maltby East page description of the Board, the three themes and a plan due "at the end of 2026" read directly from rotherham.gov.uk. [10]
• Pride in Place Impact Fund figures (£750,000 in each of 2025/26 and 2026/27) read from Rotherham Council's own Cabinet report, which frames the ask as delegated authority to allocate the funding. [14]
• Bassingthorpe Farm SPD approval (15 September 2026), ~2,000-home ambition, 25% council land ownership and development-partner search corroborated across Yorkshire Post, the Council's own decision record and rothbiz.co.uk. [26,27,28]
• Midland Road (Great Places/Keepmoat, 120 homes, £30m) and Olive Lane (Lindum Group, 50 homes, SYMCA Brownfield Housing Fund) corroborated across two independent sources each. [32,33,34,35]
• Housing Strategy 2025–2030 priorities, the 25% affordable-homes target and the 1,000-council-homes programme (750 delivered by December 2025) read from the Council's own Appendix 1 document. [22]
• RNN Group's T-Level construction provision and CTEC status of Leeds College of Building read from the college's own page and the regional page respectively. [36,37]

Not verified / press only

• The Rotherham Gateway / town centre masterplan homes figures (c.225–400 homes) and the "late 2030" station-opening date rest on press and campaign-site reporting rather than a retrieved planning consent or funding award.
• Rotherham's own live procurement page (rotherham.gov.uk) returned HTTP 404 on the paths tried directly; the YORtender position rests on the regional page's own primary confirmation and on tender-notice aggregators, not a fresh council-page fetch for this edition.
• The Council's £1.5m Impact Fund figure was read from its own Cabinet report rather than independently re-parsed from GOV.UK's Annex A tables for either determination.
• Which of the three cited annual housing-requirement figures (958, 554 or 1,151 dwellings a year) the Council is currently working to was not resolved.
• Homes England Strategic Partnership (SP2) grant amount specific to Midland Road was not itemised in sources checked.
• Whether Rotherham appears in the 20 March 2026 phase 2 expansion methodology note was not independently confirmed against the primary GOV.UK list for this edition.

Open items

• Maltby East Pride in Place Board chair — not identified in sources checked.
• Rotherham's housing register total, band breakdown and homelessness presentation figures.
• Whether a Rotherham-specific SAHP strategic-partnership scheme (as opposed to a regional estimate) has been confirmed for any of the 33 first-wave partners.
• Rotherham Council's direct procurement contact page and email (a "procurement.capworks@rotherham.gov.uk" address appeared in aggregated search results without a retrievable primary URL — not verified, not cited above).
• A fuller live-schemes pipeline beyond the four named here would need the Council's own housing land supply monitoring report.

Verifier pass, 19 September 2026

• Corrected: the brief pointed at Yorkshire Housing as the first-wave partner with the clearest Yorkshire base and left Rotherham without one. Great Places Housing Association is a first-wave partner (2,600 homes / £320.6m, read from the table) and is the developer of the 120 social-rent homes at Midland Road — the brief named the scheme without making the connection. The "which housing figure applies" question is resolved the other way from how it was framed: the 554 dwellings a year of the Core Strategy Partial Update is dead — the council states it will not progress that route and is preparing a new Local Plan — so the standard method figure (c.1,151) is the one to design to. Procurement is no longer marked unverified: the council's own "Council tenders and contracts" page names YORtender and publishes the contract register. [41]
• Confirmed from the primary lists: Maltby East appears as "Rotherham | 1 | Maltby East" in the phase 2 methodology note, and Rotherham appears nowhere in the 20 March 2026 expansion note (40 English boards, no Yorkshire and the Humber place), so the 30 November 2026 deadline applies and 26 February 2027 does not. Rotherham is in the phase 1 list for the central area, with no plan deadline. Impact Fund Annex A re-parsed for both years: Rotherham at £750,000 in each, confirming the Cabinet report's £1.5m as two annual grants.
• Opened and closed: the Pride in Maltby board chair is Warren Carratt, with Beverley Ferguson as Vice Chair, named in the board's own minutes of 7 August 2026 published by the council, with the full membership and a meeting cycle running to 18 September 2026 [42]. Rotherham Central's Regeneration Plan was submitted in November 2025, its six themes are published, delivery began April 2026 and further investment plans fall in 2030 and 2033 [44]. A live route in was found that the brief had missed entirely: the Local Plan Call for Sites 2026 is open to 31 December 2026, extended after the August 2026 NPPF revision [43].
• Still open, with what was searched: Rotherham's housing register total, band breakdown and homelessness presentations (council housing pages); the Homes England SP2 grant amount specific to Midland Road (not itemised by Great Places, the council or press); the Rotherham Gateway homes figures and the late-2030 station date (press and campaign sites only; no consent or funding award retrieved); a direct procurement contact email (the council's tenders page gives guidance documents rather than a named mailbox); a Rotherham-specific 2026/27 UKSPF successor allocation.

Blocked or failed URLs

• https://www.rotherham.gov.uk/local-economy/pride-in-place — still HTTP 404 on 19 September 2026, to both direct fetch and ScrapingBee, although the page is indexed; the Cabinet Regeneration Plan paper [44] is used as the primary record instead.
• https://www.rotherhamadvertiser.co.uk — HTTP 403 to direct WebFetch; read through ScrapingBee.
• https://www.rotherham.gov.uk/local-economy/pride-in-place — HTTP 404 to direct WebFetch (twice, including with a trailing path segment).
• https://www.rotherham.gov.uk/business/procurement-and-tendering — HTTP 404 to direct WebFetch.

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