15m fund to ease restructuring at 10 BME specialists

The 10 are AKSA, Arawak Walton, Ashiana, Foundation, Manningham, Nehemiah, Pine Court, Tung Sing, United Churches and Unity and are almost all based in the North.

They were chosen because they would have to cut their rents and were likely to breach the terms of their loans without financial assistance.

The allocations, announced on Wednesday, are in line with research published by the Chartered Institute of Housing that said most of the BME associations having serious problems with rent restructuring were in the North-west.

BME associations in the North had been hit by a combination of downward pressure on rents and low rents on the large properties that are attractive to BME families, which tend to be larger than white families.

Mark Lupton, policy analyst at the Chartered Institute of Housing and an author of the report, said he did not anticipate a large second round of the grant: “We don’t think there’s a strong need for a lot more money to be put in – most BME associations are doing all right financially.”

Anil Singh, chief executive of Bradford-based Manningham, said he was “delighted” with the association’s £1.08m allocation.

He added that recent government proposals to change the rent restructuring formula to allow higher rents to be charged on large properties would also help them (HT 16 July, page 13).