YORK Housing Association is to invest £5 million in affordable housing projects, including the acquisition and development of 140 homes.

The organisation, based at Monks Cross, says it is investigating potential sites for the building of 70 new affordable homes in the York, East Riding and Scarborough areas, as well as looking to purchase 70 existing affordable homes in the East Riding and York.

Chief executive Julia Histon revealed that with banks no longer making long term loans available, the association had turned to The Housing Finance Corporation to raise funds on the bond market to finance the planned growth, with further support from the Government’s Homes and Communities Agency.

“This is the first time we have gone to the City to raise funds through an aggregated bond,” she said.

“The Housing Finance Corporation has helped us to join forces with other housing associations across the country to raise cash to help meet the housing needs of local people.

“There is a huge demand for more affordable housing in our area and we are making the best use of our resources to help meet this demand.”

She said the association’s development plans would be rolled out over the next three years, but would start with a mixture of 18 family homes on the former Allenby Nursery site in Elvington.

Twelve homes on the site would be offered for affordable rents and six for shared ownership to enable local people to get on to the housing ladder.

Development and property director Paul Atkins said people local to Elvington would get priority for the new homes, which would be a real asset to sustaining the local community.

He said the current development programme also included three new affordable homes in East Yorkshire and specialist supported housing in Scarborough for young homeless people.

An association spokesman said that its acquisition of existing homes would secure their future for affordable rents, removing the possibility of them going into the private sector.