Chester & District Housing Trust has raised its loans to £114m in order to upgrade its stock to the decent homes standard.
The housing association already had a loan of £14m with HBOS and £10m with Cheshire Building Society. It has borrowed an extra £80m from HBOS and £10m from Cheshire to pay for the refurbishment of 1139 homes that do not meet the standard. Half must meet the target by 2004, the rest by 2010.

Work will include bathroom upgrades and energy efficiency improvements; 200 concrete homes will get cladding to improve their energy consumption.

Resources director Su Bramley said Chester & District had been able to keep the covenants it had on its old loans for its new facilities. "We feel they were set in more favourable terms and feel it underlines their confidence in us to deliver," she said. The deal had a security covenant plus two other covenants – fewer than many other deals of this size – giving the trust more financial flexibility.

The trust is also building a centre for its maintenance department. The department, which was formerly the council's direct labour organisation before it transferred its homes to the trust, is currently housed in a building rented from the council.

Source

Housing Today