A £150m loan from the government’s Housing Delivery Fund to Merton Catalyst LLP, a joint venture between housing association Catalyst and developer Galliard, has been agreed by Homes England and Barclays, to assist the delivery of 604 apartments on the site of the former Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium in Plough Lane.
The deal is one of the first to be agreed from the £1bn Housing Delivery Fund, which was announced by the Communities Secretary, Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP, in September last year. Barclays is putting up £90m of the cash, with government housing accelerator Homes England contributing £60m.
The new homes will consist of a mix of private sale and affordable shared ownership homes and the sophisticated, mixed-use development will also include commercial space, improved public realm and new sports stadium delivered by AFC Wimbledon.
The news will be announced by Housing Minister Kit Malthouse MP today during his keynote speech at the Chartered Institute of Housing’s 2019 conference in Manchester.
Minister of State for Housing, Kit Malthouse MP, said:
“Upping our game to build more, better and faster is how we are going to meet our ambition of delivering 300,000 homes a year by the middle of the next decade.
“Innovations are key to unlocking the next generation of homes and our Housing Delivery Fund – a £1 billion partnership between Government and Barclays – is a great example of the new approaches we’re taking to get more homes out the starting blocks.
“Today I am announcing the first two deals from this partnership, worth £155 million, that will see sites developed into communities that people will be proud to call home.”
Sir Edward Lister, Chairman of Homes England, said:
“We promised to form new, innovative partnerships to shake up the housing market and do things differently to accelerate the delivery of new homes, and this partnership with Barclays is doing just that.”
Ian McDermott, Chief Executive of Catalyst Housing, said:
“The Wimbledon scheme is a fantastic development, and we were really pleased to help bring more affordable housing to the project. We are delighted to be one of the first to receive money from the Housing Delivery Fund, which supports the development of new homes across a range of tenures.”
The Housing Delivery Fund was set up between Homes England and Barclays Bank to provide £1 billion of loan finance to open up the housing market and help support small and medium sized developers deliver new homes across the country.
The first phase of the residential units is expected to be completed by early-2021.
