East Midlands landlord agrees £100m loan under guarantee scheme

The current iteration of the AHGS was launched in 2021 with an initial £3bn backing. In February this year, the government expanded the scheme to also fund improvements to existing homes and topped it up to £6bn.

This is the third loan under AHGS to NCHA after the landlord raised £50m under the scheme in December last year to fund the development of around 350 homes.

Venn said that the 12-year bond complements the programme’s existing bonds maturing on 2033 and 2053, and demonstrates the scheme’s “flexibility and ability to adapt to meet borrowers’ requirements”.

Oriane Auzanneau, deputy portfolio manager for AHGS and managing director at Venn, said: “We are delighted to continue to support NCHA with this third loan, which will facilitate the delivery of over 450 much-needed new affordable homes in the East Midlands and help fund continuing investment in its local communities and existing homes.

“We are very pleased with the issuance outcome for this new 12-year bond, which was launched to support NCHA’s treasury requirements and will offer future borrowers more tenor choices under the scheme.”

Naomi Dobraszczyc, director of finance and resources at NCHA, said: “Our new loan is another great result from AHGS.

“The scheme continues to provide excellent value for money. For the first time our existing residents will benefit from this value because we are funding improvement works to our existing homes alongside the development of new affordable homes.

“We’re also pleased that Venn have been so responsive to our preferences on the new tenor. Overall, this loan has been quicker, more flexible and a perfect fit for NCHA’s needs.”

Last week, it was announced that 14,000-home Wythenshawe Community Housing Group had agreed a £83.5m loan.

NCHA spent £27m on maintaining and improving its existing homes and £80.8m on new homes during the year to 31 March, according to its 2023-24 financial results. This was a rise from £26.7m and £48.6m respectively in 2022-23.

The group completed 355 homes in 2023-24 with a further 394 properties started on site during the year. NCHA plans to develop 1,850 new homes over the next five years, including 250 for open market sale.

In its results, the landlord said that its surplus – before disposals of property, plant and equipment and before exceptional items – rose from £15.4m in 2022-23 to £18m last year.

NCHA said this was driven through its social housing lettings where the impact of inflation, pay awards and market price increases on expenditure were managed within additional lettings income.

The housing association is currently graded with the highest ratings of G1/V1/C1 from the Regulator of Social Housing.