£5m investment boost brings 100 new affordable homes to Fife

Kingdom Housing Association Kincardine 30 March 17Kingdom Housing Association is to press ahead with plans to develop 98 homes for rent across Fife after securing a £5 million bond issued as a loan by social investment charity Allia as part of the Scottish Government’s More Homes Scotland strategy.

The new homes will be built at Inverkeithing, Torryburn, Bonnybank and Crosshill.

Housing minister Kevin Stewart made the announcement during his visit to Kincardine, where Kingdom is developing new affordable homes in partnership with Fife Council and Campion Homes thanks to a development loan under last year’s Allia charitable bonds programme.

He said: “I’m sure this will be very welcome news for people in Fife. It means that we have now invested a total of £70m in nine charitable bonds. We have committed to deliver 50,000 new affordable homes in Scotland during the term of this parliament and this is yet another important step towards this target.”

Kingdom Housing Association chief executive, Bill Banks (left) with housing minister Kevin Stewart
Kingdom Housing Association chief executive, Bill Banks (left) with housing minister Kevin Stewart

Last year Kingdom secured a similar Allia bond for the development of 116 new homes. These included two homes in Kincardine for affordable rent plus a further 22 homes in Dunfermline, 49 homes in Cupar and 18 in Lower Largo.

Nick Pollard, Kingdom’s director of corporate support services, explained: “Kingdom Housing Association is very pleased to again be working with Allia Impact Finance in terms of raising private finance for much needed new development of affordable housing in Fife.”

He added: “The key attraction for Kingdom Housing Association of the Allia Scottish Government bond is its simplicity in what is an ever more complex area of raising private finance. The new loan of £5m provided by Allia will enable Kingdom to acquire, through off the shelf acquisition and new developments, a total of 98 new homes. We are also very grateful to Scottish Government for providing grant funding which is being used on these developments.”

Phil Caroe, director of social finance at Allia, said: “Allia is proud to have worked in partnership with the Scottish Government to support the creation of over 900 affordable new homes across Scotland. The charitable bonds programme has been a great success story of using finance for social good, and we’re pleased to see that the government’s leading example is now attracting interest from other parts of the UK.”

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