Arena Housing Association and South Yorkshire Housing Association have signed loans totalling £58.8m from Nationwide.

Arena will boost the number of homes it builds for elderly people after securing a £28.8m loan while South Yorkshire will use a £22m deal to fund its development programme.

The Arena facility, which includes £10m of new money, will be used to fund “elderly villages” – schemes for people over the age of 55 – in St Helens and Sheffield.

Arena will spend £8m completing the village in St Helens, which will include 200 flats.

The remaining £2m will be spent on the village in Sheffield, which will include 250 units developed in conjunction with the ExtraCare Charitable Trust.

Arena is investing in the St Helens village as part of a deal to merge with St Helens Housing Association, which manages about 400 units.

Brian Cronin, deputy chief executive of Arena, said: “The merger is going to the Housing Corporation for approval and we expect to have things finalised in the next few days.”

Cronin added that St Helens’ 101 staff would join Arena.

South Yorkshire will use its £22m loan, including £15m of new money, to fund its development programme, which will build 120 units by 2007.

Source

Housing Today