Leeds & Yorkshire Housing Association build for the future with £13m loan

The first Leeds & Yorkshire Housing Association (LYHA) development is now underway after a £13m loan agreement was secured from Santander Corporate and Commercial Banking.

Allan Murray, director of housing finance at Santander Corporate Banking, met LYHA’s chief executive Lisa Pickard, and development manager Joanna Chambers at the Aldham House Lane site in Wombwell, Barnsley, where the LYHA is building 25 new affordable rented homes, due to be completed in March 2016.

The new £13m facility will enable LYHA provide up to a further 150 homes in its core areas of Leeds, Barnsley and Whitby by 2018.

The strategy going forward is to use these funds equally between the Association building new homes itself, such as those at Aldham House Lane, alongside partnerships with developers including Redrow, Ben Bailey and Bellway to purchase S106 homes on larger home ownership sites.

This move comes at a time when the National Housing Federation’s Home Truths’ report revealed that over the next 20 years in the Yorkshire region alone, there will be 369,000 new households created, but at current building rates, there will be a shortfall of 200,000 homes by 2031.

LYHA will aim to provide new homes to tackle the housing shortage.

As well as Aldham House Lane, LYHA is currently building an additional 27 affordable rented two and three-bedroom homes in Athersley, Barnsley, plus 23 one and two-bed apartments close to Leeds city centre. The new homes will be built to Level 3 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, ensuring the homes are energy efficient and affordable to live in at the same time as reducing carbon emissions.

LYHA, which is committed to adding value to existing communities in areas where it works, always build new homes that are designed in keeping with the local area and, whilst providing modern new fit-for-purpose homes, will add value to and enhance the local area as well as benefit local residents.

Lisa Pickard, chief executive of Leeds and Yorkshire Housing Association, said: “Santander is the perfect partner in growing our business and helping us successfully deliver our vision to ‘provide excellent quality affordable homes and services that make a positive impact on people and communities’. The backing of Santander further cements LYHA’s credentials as a strong, viable and efficient business. We are equipped and enabled to build more much needed new homes in the Yorkshire area.”

Allan Murray, director, housing finance, Santander Corporate & Commercial Banking, added: “LYHA is a passionate business with a great track record, which is fully committed to tackling housing shortage in its operational area. We are thrilled to be able to support such a positive business and one that also underlines our own commitment to support the affordable housing sector in Yorkshire. We look forward to seeing this relationship develop further in the future.”

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