Allia C&C (under the former name of Allia Impact Finance) has been supporting the vital development of affordable homes across Scotland for the last four years with its Scottish Charitable Bond programme.

The bonds provide simple, affordable loans to housing associations solely for building affordable housing, using Scottish Government investment. The loans are available for five to 15 years on an unsecured basis with light covenants in place, and no loan or interest repayments are made until the end of the term.

What makes these bonds truly unique, is that interest on the loans is used to create a grant fund, so that Scottish Government can donate funds to support further social housing development – keeping the money within the sector.

Grant funding success

To date, the Scottish Government has invested over £132 million in Allia’s Scottish charitable bonds, which has led to over £33 million being generated as grants.

One housing association to benefit from this grant funding was Eildon Housing Association. In 2017, Scottish Government allocated £773k from the grant pot to part-fund their development project at High Street/Chapel Street in Selkirk.  The housing completed this year – and went on to be recognised as the ‘Best Small Affordable Housing Development of the Year’ at the Scottish Home Awards in June.

Eildon’s striking new development provides 10 much-needed, high quality 1 and 2 bedroomed homes. Its creative design ensures that this challenging site in a sensitive town centre location, has been developed to both regenerate the local area and also provide high quality accommodation.

Nile Istephan, Chief Executive of Eildon Housing Association, commented: “This award continues a long line of success at national awards over recent years and is the second year in succession that we have achieved this award. This reinforces the value that Eildon brings to Borders communities with the investment we are able to make, working in partnership with Scottish Borders Council and the Scottish Government.”

Eildon has also utilised the Scottish Charitable Bond programme themselves, receiving a loan in both 2016 and 2017 totalling £15.2 million for affordable housing development.

Find out more

If you’d like to find out more about the Scottish Charitable Bond programme, contact Allia C&C on 020 3039 3445 or hello@alliacc.com