What you might need to think about in 2011
With the sudden chill in the weather, this article* by Mike Wilkins, Chief Executive of Ducane Housing Association, from the Christmas season could be just the winter warmer we need…
No comments
Archive for the ‘Social Housing’ Category
This is an archive of previous articles. Click here to view the latest articles.
Rental market flexibility and how much to pay for it.
Around 17 November last year something started happening here at THFC (The Housing Finance Corporation) …..the phone started ringing again! That was CSR (Comprehensive Spending Review) + four weeks, and Housing Associations were coming out of the bunker.
Continue reading Rental market flexibility and how much to pay for it. 
Maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner
London has become an increasingly international city over recent decades. It is one of the most expensive capitals in the world to live. But affordability, diversity and choice of tenure in housing lie at the heart of whether we can sustain London as the thriving mixed community that we know today. The danger is that the cost of owned housing drives ordinary working people and communities further and further from the urban boundaries of London itself, changing the character of the capital and making it a less sustainable working and living environment.
What does £2m buy you?
The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC) invests £13m of funds sourced from the European Investment Bank (EIB) into two sites in Hackney being built for Genesis Housing Group and Network Housing Group. Between both schemes, the saving for the duration of the loan compared to bank funding adds up to over £2m. EIB’s AAA credit rating provides the cheapest long dated fixed source of funds available to housing associations. This saving allows grant to be spread further and allowing more developments to take place.
Understand the past; invest in the future
In the following blog post, Andrew Heywood discusses his in-depth article Investing in Social Housing that has just been placed on the THFC website and which you can also download by clicking on the title here: “Investing in Social Housing – A Guide to the Development of the Affordable Housing Sector”.
Overview of the Age of Austerity
The Social Housing Magazine Finance Conference was ominously titled “Affordable Housing in an Age of Austerity”. The timing of the conference was unfortunate given that very little about housing policy has been announced by the new Government. Many predictions were made from various people within the housing industry as to factors likely to affect the housing sector.
Better to be a tortoise than a hare?
Housing Associations (HAs) often sell themselves short. Judged by institutional investors (UK and European pension funds and life companies) HAs are more often than not viewed today as a better credit risk than the banks that have provided a significant proportion of their debt.
Private Finance for Social Housing: Past, present and future
Originally commissioned to mark the 20th anniversary of private finance for Social Housing a research paper jointly written by housing experts Professor Christine Whitehead and Dr Peter Williams for the London School of Economics (and supported by HEIF4), provides an incisive and sometimes critical third party summary of over 20 years of funding in the sector.
Continue reading Private Finance for Social Housing: Past, present and future
Same old Harrogate……very different conversations!
As anyone who’s visited the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) annual conference in Harrogate will attest, there is only one Bettys (well actually, there are five – but only one in Harrogate). But the talk this year was less Alan Bennett and blue rinses than high finance.
Continue reading Same old Harrogate……very different conversations!
View from the Valleys
It sounds like an oxymoron, something like an “honest politician” but in this case it is not a panoramic vista but my interpretation of my visit to South Wales.
