THREE housing associations will collectively build 700 new homes in the next six years after their parent organisation, Wheatley Group, secured a £76.5 million funding package from Scottish Widows and Bank of Scotland.

The cash will be used by Wheatley’s commercial subsidiary Lowther Homes to buy 560 mid-market rental properties currently owned by three of the group’s registered social landlords.

The proceeds of that sale will then be handed over to Scotland’s largest social landlord Glasgow Housing Association, west of Scotland-based Cube and east coast-focused Dunedin Canmore to enable them to finance the new homes.

According to Wheatley chair Alastair MacNish the deal represents “a significant milestone” in the organisation’s “ongoing efforts to boost the supply of affordable homes across the country in support of the Scottish Government’s More Homes Scotland agenda”.

“It is a massive vote of confidence by Scottish Widows and the Bank of Scotland in both Wheatley and the affordable housing sector, and one that will lead to hundreds of new, affordable, high-quality, energy-efficient homes,” he added.

Lloyds Bank subsidiary Scottish Widows provided the funding via its relationship with Bank of Scotland Real Estate and Housing, which is also part of the Lloyds group. The partnership allows Scottish Widows to provide a long-dated loan package that dovetails with the shorter-term offering provided by the bank. The loan to Wheatley has a 25-year term. It comes after Wheatley received £185m of funding from the European Investment Bank earlier this year and brings the total raised by Wheatley since 2013 to almost £930m.