Glasgow housing association has shelved plans to borrow more than £700m from a consortium of banks.
The post-transfer association was due to start using its loan facility with lenders including the Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland by April this year.

But it has decided to defer for a further two years instead.

A GHA spokesman said the decision would not affect the £750m procurement programme it launched last week (HT 27 February, page 13). He said: "Next year, GHA will be able to fund the near doubling of its investment programme while drawing down minimal borrowing. Therefore, we will not need to draw fully on our loan facility until 2006."

GHA has a surplus of more than £100m from 2003/4 as a result of spending less than it budgeted on building and service contracts.

This surplus will be used to fund this year's programme.