Member Article

Over 850 new homes to be built in North West

A total of 871 new affordable homes may be built across the North West under the multi-million pound deal announced by Housing Minister Kris Hopkins.

Across the UK, 13 housing associations will receive a share of £208million in loans, offered on the best rate ever achieved, to help deliver 4,800 new affordable homes.

In Greater Manchester there will be 429 homes built, while in Lancashire there will be 361. Southport in Merseyside will benefit from 57 new affordable homes, and 24 will be built in Allerdale, Cumbria.

The agreement forms part of the Affordable Housing Guarantees Scheme, delivered by Affordable Housing Finance, part of The Housing Finance Corporation.

Through the scheme the government will guarantee and unlock up to £3.5billion of cheaper debt for Affordable Housing Finance, enabling it to lend this on to housing associations to build new homes to rent for families in need.

Affordable Housing Finance has issued its first bond to raise the funding for the schemes, worth £208million and priced at 3.8%.

Taken together with around £250 million from an existing European Investment Bank loan also guaranteed by government, the 13 housing associations will deliver around 4,800 new affordable homes nationwide.

Housing Minister Kris Hopkins said: “Since 2010 we’ve delivered 170,000 new affordable homes – but we want to go further. Thousands of new affordable homes will be built in communities from Glasgow to Truro, for families in real need.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .