Warrington to lend social landlords £20m
WARRINGTON council is planning to loan up to £20m to two housing associations to help kick start the building of new homes.
The economic downturn has left developers, including social landlords, struggling to secure development finance.
This has caused some schemes in the town to stall and the council fears it is falling behind on its housing targets.
A report to the authority’s executive says there is an annual shortfall of 171 affordable homes across the borough for the five-year period from 2008 to 2013, up on 42 from 2001 to 2006.
This week the executive was expected to approve loans of up to £10m each to Arena Housing Association and Warrington Housing Association.
The council will borrow the cash from the Public Works Loans Board (PWLB) and charge interest of 1.25% above the PWLB rate, fixed over 25 years. The facility will be available for five years and the minimum the associations can borrow is £500,000.
The report states: “Without providing loans to RPs [registered providers of social housing] the council may not be able to achieve the sustainable community strategy priority to increase the provision of affordable housing within the borough.
“This has an impact not only on the number of affordable homes built in the borough, but also on construction jobs, associated trades and building suppliers.”
