Funding Affordable Homes (FAH), a social impact company which enables long-term socially responsible private investment into the affordable housing sector, has today announced that it has received an investment of £15 million from Big Society Capital.
FAH has also signed its first co-operation agreement in the general needs affordable housing sector, with Housing Solutions, a leading housing association in the South East, which owns, manages and maintains more than 7,500 homes. This agreement will see FAH and Housing Solutions work together to identify housing development schemes for FAH to invest in, and which Housing Solutions will maintain and manage.
Projects into which FAH invests must be capable of delivering social benefit. As well as funding an increase in the number of affordable homes that are made available to families and individuals, investors benefit from stable long-term, inflation adjusted income through freehold ownership of affordable housing, alongside the prospect of anticipated capital appreciation. Recent agreements signed by FAH include:
Luton YMCA: FAH has acquired the freehold of a new hostel that once complete will provide accommodation, training and support for 78 young homeless people in the Luton area. The facility will be operated and managed by YMCA Bedfordshire under a 30 year lease providing for long-term stability and the delivery of support programmes such as those run by the Prince’s Trust that will operate from the facility. The development includes six 1-bed move-on flats and is at an advanced stage with completion expected around May 2016.
Chairman of FAH Richard McCarthy said: “We are delighted to be working with Big Society Capital, another company which aims to make investment work towards social deliverables in the UK.”
The initial funding round, including the investment by BSC allows FAH to invest up to £100 million in affordable housing projects prior to a further funding round in 2016.Anna Shiel, Senior Investment Director at Big Society Capital commented: “This investment in FAH supports the launch of the business and will assist the development of its growing portfolio of socially beneficial housing projects. These projects will deliver impact by providing affordable housing for people on low incomes and those who face particular challenges in finding suitable housing, such as young homeless people or older people. This is a fresh approach from long-term capital, operating within a partnering model which the affordable housing sector needs at present, and which we believe will contribute greatly to the social investment market in the UK.”
CEO Paul Munday is supported by Greg Campbell, founder of leading sector consultants Campbell Tickell. FAH’s board features some of the most prominent figures in affordable housing including Richard McCarthy, CBE, the former Director General, Neighbourhoods at the Department for Communities and Local Government responsible for English housing and planning policy. Lord David Triesman, the former Chairman of the National Enquiry into Housing Benefit for the Cabinet Office is also a Director, as is Debbie Ounsted, CBE, the former chair of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
For further information please contact:
Paul Munday – paul.munday@fundingaffordablehomes.com
About Big Society Capital
Big Society Capital is a financial institution with a social mission, set up to build the social investment market in the UK, so that charities and social enterprises can access appropriate repayable finance to enable them to grow, become more sustainable and increase their impact on society. It is doing this by building a diverse social investment market: encouraging investors to lend or invest money to achieve a social as well as a financial return. Since it was set up as an independent organisation in 2012, Big Society Capital has invested £246 million in specialist organisations who lend to charities and social enterprises.
