Housing association secures £37.5m fund boost

WALES and West Housing has secured a £37.5m funding boost to support the building of 2,500 new homes over the next five years.

The housing association has secured long-term repayable finance from the Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), which has seen its lending to social landlords in Wales now exceeding £200m following its latest deal.

Last year PIC confirmed of £65m funding to Wales’s biggest housing association, Newport headquartered

Pobl, to support its strategy of delivering 10,000 new homes over the next decade. It has also backed the Welsh Housing Partnership.

Headquartered in Cardiff, Wales and West Housing manages around 12,000 homes across 15 local authorities in Wales. These include more than 3,000 properties for older people as well as supported housing for people with a range of particular needs.

Its £37.5m funding has been split into three tranches with drawdowns this year and next, with the entire amount maturing in 2060. The funding is secured on a portfolio of its social housing properties.

Stuart Epps, executive director of Resources at Wales and West Housing, said: “We are delighted to have secured this funding, which is the latest step towards our ambitious plan to build 2,500 homes in the next five years in support of the Welsh Government’s plan for delivering 20,000 new affordable homes during the current term. We were pleased to work with PIC’s experienced team, who were flexible and innovative in their approach.”

Eugenia Korobova, debt origination manager at PIC, said: “We are very happy to have invested in Wales and West, a dynamic social housing provider. Sourcing long-dated, secure cash flows is important to PIC. The investment backs our longterm pension liabilities, while having the beneficial outcome of putting PIC’s capital to use in parts of the economy where funds are vitally needed.”