North View receives £2 million bond from Allia C&C
The loan will support North View Housing Association’s plan to build 25 new affordable homes.
North View Housing Association has received a £2 million Scottish charitable bond from Allia C&C for the development of further affordable housing.
The loan of £2 million will support North View Housing Association’s plan to build 25 new affordable homes on the site of the former Windlaw Lodge nursing home on Ardencraig Road in Castlemilk, Glasgow.
North View is a community-controlled housing association that has operated in the Windlaw area of Castlemilk since its establishment in 1993. The completion of this project will mark the end of the association’s development programme in Windlaw and see its stock base rise to just under 700 rented units.
Housing Minister Kevin Stewart said: “Everyone deserves a safe, warm place to call home and that’s why we’ve invested £190 million in charitable bonds since 2014, providing development finance for over 1,200 affordable homes so far.
“It’s encouraging to see the success of the programme continue to grow, with the fifth Charitable Bond to be issued this year taking the total issued in 2019–20 to over £60 million.
“Through the charitable donation generated by the bonds, this innovative programme is helping communities grow and thrive, further supporting the development of social housing and contributing towards our target of 50,000 affordable homes by 2021.”
Euan Anderson, Director of North View Housing Association, said: “Work is scheduled to start on site next month and be completed in the spring of next year, whereupon the 25 units will contribute in small part to the alleviation of homelessness and to the Scottish Government’s target of providing 50,000 new homes by May 2021.
“This is the first project that we have developed since 2008, so we had to get up to speed with the many changes that have come in over the last decade. That was challenging, but we are delighted that Allia C&C and Glasgow City Council have had the confidence to support us financially to help get the project over the line. We couldn’t have done it without them.
“We are also really pleased to be partnering with Allia C&C on this project, because we believe in their funding model, whereby they will re-invest our loan interest to stimulate the social housing sector, and we are looking forward to working with them in the months ahead.”
Allia C&C has been supporting the vital development of affordable homes across Scotland for the last four years with its Scottish Charitable Bond programme. The bonds provide simple, affordable loans to housing associations solely for building affordable housing using Scottish Government investment. The interest on the loans enables the Scottish Government to also provide grants for further social housing benefit. The loans are available for five to 15 years on an unsecured basis, with light covenants in place and no loan or interest repayments are made until the end of the term.
Daniel Carrico, Head of Origination at Allia C&C, said: “Our programme offers loans from £1 million through to £20 million, so it’s great to be supporting smaller housing associations like North View alongside larger ones as they each have such a significant social impact on their communities regardless of scale. It’s this social impact that drives us at Allia C&C and is what also makes our Scottish bond so unique.”