- Residents' response to the Green Paper on Social Housing
- Karbon Homes announces it has issued £150 million in new bonds
- VIVID completes 10-year deal with Legal & General Homes to provide over 500 new homes
- Southern Housing Group successfully issues £300 million public bond
- Network Homes contact centre highly commended at the UK National Contact Centre Awards
- L&Q partners with Cardboard Citizens to tell the stories of social housing
- Two Clarion Housing Group schemes nominated for Landscape Institute Awards
- Hertfordshire housing association builds on success with Lloyds Bank
- Town and Country Housing Group to join Peabody
- Green light for Severn Vale's merger with Bromford
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Posted 13.11.18
VIVID Homes: Article link
A new partnership between Legal & General Homes and VIVID will bring 525 new affordable homes to the new Finchwood Park development at Hogwood Farm in Finchampstead, Wokingham.
The partnership gives long term certainty to the delivery of much-needed new homes in Wokingham. Almost 60% (304) of the new affordable properties will be available for social rent. Affordable rent and shared ownership properties will also be provided.
Finchwood Park is Legal & General Homes' newest development of homes, parkland, retail space, community facilities and over 140 acres of open space. 1,500 homes of different types, tenures and sizes will be joined by a new country park, enhancing and expanding the existing landscape with new ponds and wetlands.
A two-form primary school will also be built, designed to accommodate a potential expansion to three-form entry as the future community grows.
Legal & General Homes will build all the private units on site with the affordable units being constructed in partnership with VIVID.
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Posted 12.11.18
L&Q: Article link
Housing association L&Q has announced a partnership with theatre company Cardboard Citizens, which aims to tell the real-life stories of those in social housing.
The award-winning theatre company will undertake residencies in four L&Q estates, listening to the stories of residents, and working with them to explore the truth of social housing, and the challenges that residents can face.
Adrian Jackson, Cardboard Citizens artistic director said:
"The partnership with L&Q will allow us to celebrate what works in social housing and discover what doesn't work, through the stories of the people who live in it.
"We want to amplify their voices, helping them inform the way social housing can develop to meet the challenges we face in the future."
The residencies will take place throughout 2019.
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Posted 06.11.18
Thrive Homes: Article link
Hertfordshire based housing association, Thrive Homes, has secured a £50 million funding package from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking to support its plans to build 1,000 new homes and grow its portfolio by a quarter by 2021.
As part of that growth, Thrive Homes is set to build over 150 homes on recently acquired land in Watford and Hemel Hempstead.
Lloyds Bank provided a tailored finance package by utilising its £500 million Social Housing fund, which was announced earlier this year.
The package included a £25 million loan and a £25 million revolving credit facility. This will allow the organisation to release funds on a flexible basis to be able to invest in future projects.
Thrive Homes was established in 2008. It currently has over 5,000 homes in management and construction across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
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Posted 06.11.18
Peabody Group: Article link
Peabody and Town and Country Housing Group (TCHG) have announced plans for TCHG to become part of the Peabody Group.
Over the coming months, the organisations will be working on the relevant consents and consultations with a view to making a final decision next year.
Under the proposals, TCHG would become a distinct subsidiary of Peabody. This would enable the organisations to combine strength to build 800 quality new homes across the South East every year.
This is 500 more homes than TCHG would be able to deliver on its own and would take Peabody's new homes target to 3,300 per year from 2021.
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Posted 05.11.18
Severn Vale Housing: Article link
The proposed merger with the Bromford Group has been given the go-ahead by the Board at Severn Vale Housing this week.
The board's decision to approve the merger paves the way for the final stage in the creation of the new 44,000-home landlord in early January 2019.
Earlier in the year, South Gloucestershire-based Merlin Housing Society entered into a partnership with Bromford. Severn Vale will be joining the Bromford Group by merging with Merlin in January 2019. This means that existing Severn Vale customers will become Merlin tenants or leaseholders.
Over the next ten years Bromford will be aiming to grow its portfolio through an ambitious development programme that will invest £1.5 billion to build 15,000 new homes, with around half of these planned for Gloucestershire.
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Updated 21.11.18
