Clydesdale Bank provides £50m for affordable housing programme

08/08/2011

A not-for-profit organisation which provides affordable housing for thousands of families and key public sector workers has secured a £50m funding package to help meet part of its commitment to provide up to 4,000 new homes by 2016.

Bedfordshire Pilgrims Housing Association (bpha), one of the UK’s leading providers and developers of affordable housing, has secured a £50m funding package from Clydesdale Bank Corporate & Structured Finance.

The funding will be used to build new affordable homes throughout the East of England between 2012 and 2015, fulfilling bpha’s Homes and Communities Agency pledge.

bpha, based in Bedford, is a development partner of the HCA. It successfully bid to become the leading partner in the Cambridge Challenge to develop thriving new communities in Cambridgeshire. bpha is also the lead partner in Key Communities, a partnership of seven housing associations delivering affordable housing in the East, Southwest and Midlands regions over the next four years.

Through its Keyhomes East arm, bpha is also the Government-appointed HomeBuy agent for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, West Suffolk and Northamptonshire, providing expert housing advice and practical assistance for people seeking low cost home ownership, including key workers.

Paul Gray, bpha Executive Director of Finance, said: “The whole of the housing sector is facing similar challenges. In the past we’ve relied on government funding to meet our development goals, but with grant levels greatly reduced we have to be much more innovative if we are to continue to build affordable homes.

“We are grateful to be working with Clydesdale Bank to help make this happen, and hope that this will be the start of a long term relationship.”

Clydesdale Bank’s Corporate and Structured Finance team was led by Minesh Patel, a director in the Corporate Banking team in London. He said:

“bpha has consistently proved itself to be an organisation which delivers high quality affordable housing in partnership with local authorities, Government agencies and private developers.

“Clydesdale Bank is looking forward to partnering bpha as it fulfils its pledge to the Housing and Communities Agency to provide much-needed affordable housing.

“Working with bpha demonstrates our growing appetite for the housing association sector.”

Since bpha was founded in 1992, it has helped more than 5,000 families into home ownership and currently manages more than 1,600 shared ownership properties. bpha is one of the UK’s largest providers and developers of affordable housing, and currently manages more than 16,000 homes. It employs more than 300 staff across central, southern and eastern England including Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.