A local authority is set to miss out on a big chunk of Government cash after not enough homes were built across the district this year.

Changes to the way the Government’s New Homes Bonus scheme works this year mean councils will only receive the funding in 2018/19 if housing growth is at least 0.4 per cent of the total size of the area.

During 2017, 240 homes were builtin the Braintree district, missing the baseline figure of 243 homes by three properties.

This year is the first since the introduction of the scheme the council has missed out on the extra funding.

In 2015/16 the council received £2.1 million, in 2016/17 it received £2.8 million and in 2017/18 a total of £2.1 million was allocated.

However after missing the target, in 2018/19 Braintree Council will receive £1.26 million, more than £850,000 less than the previous year.

Leader of Braintree Council Graham Butland said the council had granted planning permission for enough homes, but developers were not holding up their end of the bargain.

He said: “Despite us granting planning permissions for significant numbers of homes in the district in line with our requirements to meet our objectively assessed need for homes, the number of homes actually built by developers was lower than the threshold for the New Homes Bonus.

“We are disappointed that developers have not completed as many as we had hoped this year. As a result Braintree Council taxpayers have lost out on any additional New Homes Bonus for 2018/19.”

The council will still receive its bonus of £1.26 million in 2018/19 because of an accumulation of a number of affordable homes it has built in previous years.

Mr Butland said: “We will do what we can to encourage developers to implement their planning consents as quickly as possible but we have little legal power to do so.

“The Government needs to consider whether it should give authorities more power to encourage tardy developers.”

NHB cash is spent of infrastructure and Braintree Council has used the majority of the money it has so far received for capital spending on projects throughout the district.

Since the scheme first came into play in 2011/12, Braintree Council has received £11.95 million in funding from the government, of which it has so far spent or allocated £10 million.

A total of 20 per cent of a council’s NHB is given to the county council.

By comparison, Colchester Council is set to receive £3.4 million in 2018/19 after 798 homes were built in the borough.

The target was 738.