London & Quadrant Group will launch a subsidiary to build more key-worker homes next month.
The new division will be incorporated into Tower Homes, L&Q's low-cost home ownership arm. The key-worker division will get £150m from banks and build around 2000 homes for sale and rent over the next two to three years.

L&Q Group finance director David Montague said he hoped the funding would increase to £500m over five years. He said: "There's clearly appetite [for key-worker housing] from mainstream funders."

Tower Homes will buy L&Q's existing 2000 key-worker homes for an undisclosed sum.

L&Q won a contract with the London Development Agency this month to build 100 flats in Greengate House in Newham, east London. The scheme is part refurbishment and part off-site manufacture and it is hoped it will receive funding from next year's Challenge Fund.

L&Q is also building 200 flats for St George's Medical School in Twickenham, south-west London.

Meanwhile, L&Q's new community financial services arm, Change, is considering extending its services to key-worker tenants. Montague said: "They are the emerging financially excluded, as banks are focusing more on high-income, high-spending customers. Middle-income people find themselves excluded from mainstream financial provision."

Source

Housing Today