THE Government has provisionally announced Swindon Council will get £6.1m from the New Homes Bonus next year.

It is a fund given to authorities depending on how many new homes they build and can be spent how the council wishes.

If given, the amount will be a rise of just over £1m on last year’s figure.

That money was put into an infrastructure fund, much of which remains available to spend.

About £1.5m of the cash has been used towards developing high speed broadband in parts of the town currently without.

But council leader David Renard (Con, Haydon Wick) said due to the current economic situation it was unlikely they would be able to repeat that.

He said: “We have a history of house building so it would not surprise me if we had received one of the highest rates per head in the country.

“A lot of the money will be going on revenue spending to make sure we can still offer key council services.

“We would like to put it towards infrastructure projects but we have to use some on key spending.”