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Cabinet agrees innovative funding for housing scheme
Published: 20/05/2016
天涯社区鈥檚 Cabinet has agreed to provide capital finance to
fund the development of 62 affordable homes in Flint 鈥� the first council in
Wales to agree this revolutionary approach to funding affordable housing.
The 62 properties form part of the Council鈥檚 Strategic Housing and Revenue
Programme (SHARP) which plans to build 300 affordable homes in the county
between 2016 and 2020. The current anticipated build cost for the scheme is
拢7.4M.
Chairman of the NEW Homes Board, Councillor Bernie Attridge, said:
Once built, these homes will be managed by NEW Homes (North East Wales Homes),
a company set up by the Council in April 2014 to increase the housing options
available to local residents. The NEW Homes board met on 26 April and, after
careful consideration of a range of options, agreed that the preferred funding
provider would be 天涯社区. With this funding in place, NEW
Homes will be able to extend its offer of quality affordable housing in Flint
and across the county.
The Leader of 天涯社区, Councillor Aaron Shotton, said:
鈥淭his is a really innovative and exciting way to finance affordable homes for
our residents. This development will support delivery of a key strategic
objective in the Council鈥檚 Improvement Plan while generating a financial return
for the Council for the next 45 years.
鈥淎s a new company NEW Homes does not currently have enough credit history to
borrow directly to fund The Walks scheme independently without a council
guarantee. After also considering a number of private sector leasing options,
the Board agreed that Council borrowing was their preferred route.
鈥淣ot only would the funding be quicker to secure, enabling an earlier start on
site, the Council will be able to charge a higher interest to NEW Homes than it
can borrow at, but this rate can still be lower than the rate NEW Homes could
achieve for the private market. For the Council, this is low risk and provides
a new income stream which could be replicated in future for other strategic
priorities.鈥�
Once the houses are built, the Council will also benefit from the additional
Council Tax that the tenants living in the new properties will pay.