Notting Hill Housing Group would have doubled its £180m development programme for 2004/6 if it had become one of the Housing Corporation's exclusive list of development partners.
The group was one of the top five developing associations in 2003/4 with a £45m allocation from the corporation.

But it missed out last week when the corporation named 71 partners for 2004/6 because it received two amber lights, for governance and management, in the corporation's "traffic lights" assessments of housing associations' performance.

But it said it was aiming to get a contract "within the next 12-18 months".

John Hughes, Notting Hill's director of development, said: "We were very disappointed to miss out on the partner programme but hope our past performance will convince the corporation to admit us sooner rather than later.

"We have a two-year programme to build 1000 homes right now, but if we got a partner agreement we could double this because we would have access to more funds."

The association has 1500 homes in the pipeline, only 535 of which can be built with funds received in the traditional way.

The present £180m programme required only £36m of corporation grant, Hughes added.

Notting Hill has a £30m loan facility to allow it to buy land across London.

Hughes said: "We have spent £8m of this so far and aim to spend the other £22m in the next two years."

Source

Housing Today