A local authority has joined the select band of councils that have been able to add to their housing stock through the private finance initiative.
Selby district council has secured £2.6m worth of government grants for 250 affordable homes in rural areas in the latest round of PFI funding.

Selby district council received the grant following more than £4 billion worth of PFI funding announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review 2000.

The PFI grant will be used to provide new homes in the villages of Selby, Sherburn and Tadcaster.

Selby district council is one of only a handful of local authorities, including North East Derbyshire, to be awarded PFI funding for housing purposes outside the eight housing revenue account PFI pathfinders.

Selby district council treasure Malcolm Kilner said the council bid for PFI support because of a shortage of affordable homes for its waiting list of nearly 1,200.

Between 60 and 80 of the council's current 3,800 homes are sold under the right to buy each year. Kilner said: "The number of properties provided by housing associations does not match this."

"The PFI scheme is a nice way of providing more choice and more options to tenants at reasonably affordable rents."

Kilner said the council would use the grant to build approximately 125 new homes and refurbish 125 existing properties. He said: "The council is making a contribution to the scheme of £25,000 a year for the next 30 years. We will have nomination rights to all of the properties over that time period, which will be negotiable at the end of it."

He added it could be up to a year before any new housing is available under the project, which will cost a total of £16m.

The next round of PFI projects will be announced in November.

Source

Housing Today