Media Centre
Press release
BUILDING SOCIETY LENDING TO HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS UP
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Contact: Neil Johnson Date: 26 Feb 2007 |
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- Building society lending to housing associations totalled £2.0 billion in 2006, compared to £1.5 billion in 2005, representing an increase of nearly a third.
- Over £7.3billion in loans were outstanding to societies from housing associations at the end of the year.
- Building societies had a market share of 44% of gross lending to housing associations in 2006.
Funds lent to housing associations are used to build new social housing and improve the quality of social housing, giving tenants the opportunity to access good quality homes.
Commenting on the figures, Neil Johnson, PR and Policy Manager at BSA, said “the increase in lending to housing associations by building societies is a clear indication of societies’ commitment to social housing and ensuring that people can have good quality accommodation regardless of tenure.
He continued “Even though building societies only account for 18% of total mortgage lending, 44% of loans to housing associations are from building societies. At a time when property ownership is increasingly moving out of financial reach of many people, social housing is of critical importance. Helping all groups of people get the home that they want has always been a key objective of building societies, and these impressive figures demonstrate societies putting this into practice.
The Barker Review identified a need for an additional 23,000 social homes to be built each year over current levels to meet current demand and to make inroads into the social housing backlog. According to the Review, this would require an investment of £1.6billion each year.
The Building Societies Association (BSA) represents all 60 building societies in the United Kingdom. Building societies have total asets in excess of £305billion and hold residential mortgages of over £200billion, approximately 18% of the total outstanding in the UK. Societies hold over £190billion of retail deposits, accounting for about 19% of such deposits in the UK. Building societies also account for over 37% of all cash ISA balances. Building societies employ almost 50,000 full and part-time staff and operate through around 2,150 branches.
2. Building societies are key players in delivering affordable housing throughout the UK. Half the lenders participating in the Government's Homebuy scheme are building societies, while many societies also have schemes of their own designed to allow first time buyers the opportunity to purchase a home.
3. Photographs of Neil Johnson are available from the BSA press office.
