Housing association to offer 100 affordable homes

A WEST Yorkshire housing association is set to provide more than 100 affordable homes in Bradford and Keighley in a £ 50.5m deal to increase its housing stock.

The deal, which is made up of £ 36.05m of new cash from Royal Bank of Scotland and £ 14.45m of existing funds, will enable Manningham Housing Association to increase its housing stock by more than 100 properties over the next five years.

Manningham Housing Association ( MHA) underwent a major organisational review after it received poor performance ratings from the Regulator of Social Housing in late 2016 and is now highly rated.

Lee Bloomfield, Manningham Housing Association chief executive, said: “Having been unable to add to our housing stock for a considerable period, we aim to grow our property portfolio by around 10 per cent over the next five years – taking the total number of units to more than 1,500.

“These are exciting times for MHA, particularly in the wake of the changes made to improve what we do and how we do it.

“We can now concentrate fully on our core mission of providing high quality affordable homes to individuals and families in Bradford and Keighley who really need them.”

Barrington Billings, MHA chair, said: “There is a national shortage of affordable homes and it is vital that MHA steps forward to deliver as many as we can.

“On average, we receive over 50 bids within a week of one of our properties being advertised with larger family homes attracting even greater interest.

“The vast majority of MHA homes are in the most deprived areas of Bradford and Keighley with high BME population.”

Mr Billings added: “We will always be committed to these neighbourhoods.”