West Kent secures new £50m funding deal to build more affordable homes across Kent in years to come

The £50m flexible loan facility from The Housing Finance Corporation has been announced today. The deal will support West Kent’s ambition to build more affordable homes across Kent in the coming years.

West Kent has the ambition to continue to grow to 10,000 homes alongside investing in their current portfolio to ensure their homes better meet residents current and future needs. In the current unpredictable market, this agreement with The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC) provides a flexible approach to accessing loan finances.

The new funding has been secured in line with West Kent’s strategic plan, which steers the housing association’s ambitions to build new homes and improve existing ones for residents across the county.

Maria Organ, Executive Director of Finance at West Kent said; “We are financially stronger as a result of this agreement, which will support our stock investment and growth plans for the years ahead. We want to provide homes and build communities our residents are proud to live in, which is why this loan agreement with THFC is so significant. The flexible loan facility we have agreed will support us in managing our liquidity needs in unpredictable market conditions at the same time as meeting our ambitions.”

Gavin Richards, Relationship Manager at THFC said; “It has been a pleasure to work with West Kent and their advisors Savills Financial Consultants on this new loan agreement, which will enable the provision of new affordable housing to countless families in the area. Having had a relationship with West Kent for 15 years in various roles, it is great that bLEND can continue to support this strong organisation in continuing to deliver new energy efficient homes in my home county of Kent. I am delighted to continue and expand the longstanding relationship with them.”

This deal was supported by Savills Financial Consultants and Anthony Collins Solicitors.

Mike Roche, Director at Savills Financial Consultants, said; “West Kent has worked hard to put the building blocks in place to allow this flexible funding arrangement. This is an exciting development, which ensures West Kent has its options open, despite the challenging wider economic context. We are very pleased to have been able to support Maria and her team in making this deal happen.”

Natalie Singh, Partner at Anthony Collins said; “We are delighted to have worked alongside West Kent on this transaction and support it to achieve its ambitions. Not only will this agreement support West Kent’s liquidity requirements, but it will support the delivery of more homes in its communities across Kent.”

For more information on the work of West Kent, please visit – westkent.org

For more information on THFC, please visit – thfcorp.com

For further information please contact:

West Kent’s Communications and Marketing team: communicationsteam@wkha.org.uk or 01732 749400

THFC’s office: offices@thfcorp.com or 02073 379920

Notes to Editors:

West Kent Housing Association was established in 1989 to accept the transfer of homes from Sevenoaks District Council. It was one of the first large scale voluntary transfer associations in the country. West Kent is a not-for-profit organisation regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing.

We were the first ‘excellent’ housing association in the country and the first gold standard Investor in People in Kent. We work across Kent, where we own and manage over 8,200 homes, working closely with all the local authorities in the area and many other statutory and voluntary partners. Our vision is to deliver places to live and space to grow for our current and future residents.

The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC) is the UK’s leading affordable housing aggregator, with over £8bn of lending to around 160 housing associations in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. THFC was set up in 1987 in partnership with the National Housing Federation and what was the Housing Corporation. It now also operates through its subsidiary company, bLEND, which was established in 2018. As a not-for-profit, the group’s surpluses are retained and reinvested to ensure THFC can continue to provide competitively priced funding for HAs long into the future. THFC’s track record of innovation includes some of the earliest green finance products for retrofit and sustainable developments.