We’ve secured £50m to build new homes
Our Corporate Plan and part of our ‘be a great landlord’ strategy sets out that we will build 2,250 new homes over the next 10 years, and invest in our existing ones. We have recently secured £50m from bLEND to make sure we have the funds to make this happen.
bLEND is a financial aggregator who provide bond finance to housing associations across the country and were selected as our preferred partner to provide funding that brings additional long term certainty to our financial position.
This new borrowing will supplement the facilities that we still have with Barclays, a lot of which have been in place since 2007. We have a great relationship with Barclays which we are sure will continue, but we felt that the time was right to diversify who we partner with, to get the best new long term funding deal available to support business plan.
We have £155million in funding to ensure we have the finances to achieve our goals set out within our Corporate Plan.
Ashley Harrison, our Director of Resources and Commercial, said: “Our plan for building new homes is an ambitious one, so to have secured funding from bLEND will really help us to achieve it and provide over 2,000 homes for families in our local area.
“bLEND have been great to work with and have helped us secure a really competitive deal as the first piece of long term borrowing that Ongo have undertaken since our transfer in 2007. Their confidence in Ongo as a borrower is further proof of the strong financial and organisational position we are in, and this is a result of the great work that everyone at Ongo does day in, day out.
“These funds will allow us to press on with our development plans and the delivery of outstanding services to our tenants and communities, knowing that we have the financial capacity to do so secured for a number of year to come.”
Bob Walder, Chair of our Partnership Board, said: “I’m delighted by the funding deal which is fixed for 33 years an excellent result for the business.
“This is really exciting news for us as an organisation because it means we can carry on doing what we do best, supporting people and helping communities to thrive.”
To stay up to date as we progress with our corporate plan and new homes, follow us on social media or check out more information on our website.