L&Q gets bumper cash boost to build new affordable homes

L&Q has been given more than £120 million to build new homes under the National Affordable Housing Programme for 2008-11.

This is more than all the private developers put together received, and nearly twice as much as the next biggest recipient got.

The money, allocated by the Government’s regulator the Housing Corporation, will enable us to build thousands of quality new homes over the coming years for people in need of affordable housing.

Waqar Ahmed, Group Director of Finance at L&Q, said: “For a number of years now L&Q has received allocations in excess of £100 million making us the leading developer in the sector.
“We have an excellent track record of delivering high quality homes across mixed tenures and over the next five years we plan to build 22,000 new homes across all tenures, in addition to the 5,000 homes we already have in the pipeline.

“This year L&Q has been allocated £120.6 million, which amounts to four per cent of the £3.3 billion allocated to various affordable housing developers. When you consider that the 13 private developers that received part of the allocation got just three per cent of the money between them, I feel this strongly reflects the faith that the Housing Corporation has in L&Q’s ability to deliver, and also in the housing association sector as a whole.”

David Montague, L&Q Group Chief Executive, added: “This is a tremendous result and is testimony to the clear strategy and hard work put in by all our development departments.
“During the year we will continue to look for further grant opportunities through ‘regular market engagement’ – a new approach to bidding which will be adopted by the Housing Corporation this year.

“This fantastic result keeps on track our aspiration to see significant growth over the coming years, and means we retain our position as the largest provider of affordable housing in London and the South East.”

The top 10 biggest awards

London & Quadrant Housing Trust - £120.6 million
Accent Group - £65.5 million
Riverside Housing Association - £63.4 million
Affinity Sutton Group - £58 million
Swan Housing Association - £52.9 million
Metropolitan Housing Trust - £47.3 million
Hyde Housing Association - £46.6 million
Manchester Methodist Housing Association - £46.3 million
Housing 21 - £41.2 million
Longhurst Group - £40.1 million

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