George Wimpey agreed the final terms on a contract to secure funding from the Housing Corporation to build subsidised affordable homes in England.
The funding award of an initial £31.7 million represents the largest award to a house builder under the Corporation's national investment programme. It will provide 958 new homes across nine sites in the South East of England. Several of the grant-funded schemes are strategic sites, which have the potential to deliver a steady stream of affordable dwellings over the longer term.
The signing of the agreement will secure George Wimpey Approved Partner status, which cements the Company's commitment to the Government's plan of increasing the supply of high quality affordable housing.
A major scheme to help low-income families and key workers into home ownership was boosted with the announcement of a new private sector partner.
Advantage, a Morgan Stanley group company, will join Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Nationwide and Yorkshire Building Societies, as a private sector partner in the Government's new Open Market HomeBuy scheme, which will increase the purchasing power of eligible households by around 25%.
From October 2006, households qualifying for the scheme will be able to apply for a regular mortgage topped up with an equity loan. This will allow thousands more families to get a first step onto the property ladder.
Currently, a family on a combined income of £35,000 could typically obtain a mortgage of just £122,500 independently. If eligible for Open Market HomeBuy, they could potentially buy a home valued at between £150,000 and £180,000.
The Shared Equity Task Force is also encouraging more private sector companies to work with the Government to develop schemes to make home ownership more affordable for families priced out of the market. This follows the announcement that Advantage is also making its own private sector equity product available to all first time buyers and existing homeowners.
No deposit is required to participate in Open Market Homebuy. Monthly repayments would start at around 20% less than buying without assistance, as lenders and the Government would expect to benefit from any increase in the value of their equity share in the property. Lenders will be providing at least half the funding for the equity loans under the scheme, with the Government making up the rest. This innovative approach will enable more than double the number of households to be helped into homeownership with the same amount of public money.
The new Open Market HomeBuy product will be available to local authority and housing association tenants, as well as key public sector workers - including nurses, teachers, social workers and police officers. The scheme will be managed by HomeBuy agents, who provide a one-stop shop for affordable housing options in their local areas.
The National Housing Federation will publish new social landlord accounting guidelines for consultation in the summer. The new statement will include recommended guidance on accounting practice for mixed tenure schemes, shared ownership sales and stock transfers.
Following the announcement of merger plans, London & Quadrant Housing Group made a £10 million credit facility available to Threshold Housing, which posted a £700,000 loss for 2004/05. The arrangement will safeguard developments that Threshold has in the pipeline, although the full facility may not be required.
Communities and Local Government Minister Ruth Kelly said she was looking closely at requests from city councils to have greater budget control over key spending sectors, including housing. As well as relinquishing central government control over budgets, the Minister also indicated her interest in developing a mayoral model of local government - not dissimilar to that operating in London.
New statistics from the Housing Corporation on social housing sector borrowing trends was published - Annual Review of Housing Association Private Finance: www.housingcorp.gov.uk.