In the first initiative of its kind, an £85m approach to funding for affordable housing with variable tenures that can last from one day to a lifetime has been launched by Orchard & Shipman.
Working with specialist advisors Revenue and Capital, the property management group has secured £85m to provide up to 300 affordable housing units in a joint venture with Bromley Council.
With funding provided by a major institutional investor and Bromley Council, Orchard & Shipman will be responsible for sourcing, buying and then managing the properties on a fully insuring and repairing basis for 50 years, after which ownership will revert to Bromley Council. These properties will be returned at no cost to the local authority.
“This new funding initiative aims to speed up the urgently needed acquisition of affordable housing for those who find themselves homeless and in temporary accommodation with good quality permanent homes,” said Chris Shipman, Chief Executive of the Orchard & Shipman Group. “It has long been known and understood that bad housing is a major contributor to poor health, poor education and poor employment opportunities and the Covid pandemic is just making this worse. As a registered provider of affordable housing this is exactly the type of social project we want to be involved in.”
Councillor Peter Morgan, Bromley’s Executive Councillor for Renewal, Recreation and Housing said: “We are excited at the potential to increase our housing supply which will not only provide much needed housing for residents we need to support but is also another example of how careful financial management can go hand in hand with delivering housing. This is positive news for those residents who may find themselves in temporary accommodation for longer than ideal, and for council taxpayers.”
John Knevett, Chairman of Orchard & Shipman Homes Ltd and previously Chief Executive of A2 Housing commented: “With the traditional housing association sector retrenching, the market is in desperate need of new entrants and new funding models with the right long-term motives and good quality services. Novel creative models like this are perfect to help add to the numbers of additional affordable homes.”
Richard Walsh of Revenue and Capital said: “We welcome Bromley Council’s and Orchard & Shipman’s approach to funding social housing stock and are on hand to support other Councils with the same market leading and flexible funding solution.”
Established in 1988 Orchard & Shipman are a specialist housing group and have been working with the London Borough of Bromley for over 10 years. The Group has long-established relationships with local authorities in Scotland and England and also manage properties on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.
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