Posted 11.12.12
Housing Minister Mark Prisk announced that council efforts to get Britain building are to be rewarded with a multi-million pound New Homes Bonus.
Over the next year, England's 353 councils are set to share a cash payout of £661 million, after delivering 142,000 new homes, including 58,000 affordable properties.
This funding also rewards councils for bringing 13,000 long-term empty properties back into use.
This provisional allocation, to be paid in the 2013 to 2014 financial year, means councils will have received £1.3 billion through the New Homes Bonus scheme since its launch in April 2011. This total recognises over 400,000 new builds and conversions, and over 50,000 empty properties being brought back into use.
The Minister argued that the New Homes Bonus had proved critical in ensuring communities see the benefit of housing growth in their area and said:
"For years, developers found themselves at loggerheads with communities unconvinced that their plans for growth would benefit them. But the New Homes Bonus is turning this around.
"The £1.3 billion paid out to councils to date has meant that now local people are able to see the rewards of new developments in their area - paving the way for thousands of much-needed, locally-supported homes to be delivered across the country."
Posted 18.12.12
The Hampshire-based Sentinel Housing Association has secured a £75 million Bond in the capital markets to provide funding for new affordable housing.
The funding was raised through a Private Placement Bond. The Association launched a funding proposal in the capital markets to attract institutional investors to invest in its organisation.
The process involved an agency - Barclays Capital Markets. A detailed document on the proposal and the Association's circumstances was launched, which was then followed by a Roadshow Presentation in the City to interested organisations and to the United States for the U.S. markets.
The initial Bond launch was for £50 million, and Sentinel received bids for the funding of £135 million. Due to the quality of the offers, it decided to scale up the Bond to the maximum of £75 million.
$25 million (£15million) of the funding was attracted from the U.S. capital markets.
