IT is hoped that a £67 Million grant to "unlock" brownfield development sites could help deliver 6,000 homes in West Yorkshire.

But the pot of cash will have to be spent within five years.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority was awarded a share of the Government's Brownfield Housing Fund earlier this year.

The money is to help local councils prepare brownfield sites - many of which would prove costly to develop - for housing developers.

Members of the Authority's Investment Committee will be given an update on the funding at a meeting on Tuesday.

A report to the committee says the Government expects that at least 4,500 houses will be delivered through the scheme - although the aim will be to deliver 6,000 houses.

Work on all the homes that will be delivered through the scheme will have to have started by March 2025.

The committee will hear that this year there will be £5m of funding. Next year there will be £20m, the year after £25m and the year after that £14m. The final year will see the remaining £3m granted.

Affordable homes plan for former timber yard in Denholme is approved

The report says: "Although this is a challenging programme, this fund provides opportunity for the City Region to open up brownfield to deliver homes on difficult sites and will contribute to the ‘Levelling Up’ agenda."

The sites that the money is to be spent on must demonstrate "market failure" - that there are cost reasons why no developer would be willing to take the site on in its current state.

Brownfield sites may seem like obvious sites to develop, but are often less attractive to developers than out of town or green field sites.

Brownfield sites can be contaminated, requiring expensive works to make them habitable, and often they require extensive accompanying highway works due to many sites being in busy urban areas.

Brownfield developments also have to consider neighbouring buildings and infrastructure - compromises that can add to the costs of a scheme.

And housing in some sites may also sell for a lot less than housing on the outskirts of towns and cities - meaning developers are often put off by low returns as well as high costs.

Although there is a general feeling that brownfield sites should be first choice for housing - such developments are not always unanimously supported.

A recent application to build 72 homes on a concreted over plot of land in Denholme, a former sawmill, attracted objections from 40 residents and the local MP Philip Davies, but was approved by Bradford Council.