South Norfolk Housing Partnership has sealed a £55m deal that will finally allow it to take on 4354 council homes some 10 months after tenants approved transfer.
The loan, signed on Monday, will allow SNHP to pay £32.5m to the council for the homes and use the remainder to fund development and to catch up on repairs.

The transfer also means South Norfolk council will avoid seeing the deficit in its housing revenue account jump from £700,000 to £1m, which would have happened if SNHP had not secured the funding.

The association aims to demolish and rebuild 66 properties and construct 39 new homes over the next three years, according to finance director Stephen Flowitt-Hill.

He said: "The goal is to replace some of our non-traditional homes, for example, those made from concrete block and prefabs. This will help alleviate the effects of right to buy on the level of stock we hold."

SNHP also plans to build a further 30 properties for sale to help fund future development, though Flowitt-Hill said that number was not confirmed and the new stock could be retained instead.

On top of these two projects, the housing partnership intends to build 200 properties over the next five or six years using grants from the Housing Corporation and the council.

Flowitt-Hill said: "When we sell right to buy properties the council gets the lion's share of the price, which it intends to plough back into social housing.

We hope the new homes will alleviate the effects of right to buy on our stock

Stephen Flowitt-Hill, South Norfolk Housing

"We are hoping that some of the funding will come back to us to reinvest."

SNHP is also considering forming a consortium with other housing associations in the area.

Flowitt-Hill said: "The more partners we can work with, the better our chance of obtaining development money and thus stemming the reduction of our stock through right to buy.

"We will be talking to the council about working in partnership with it."

South Norfolk council tenants voted for transfer last July by a majority of 68% on a turnout of 77.5% .