• £26m for new homes in the East Midlands

£26m for new homes in the East Midlands

"This will have a huge impact on our building output, helping us meet local housing need and stimulating economic growth."

Chan Kataria, emh group Chief Executive

£26m for new homes

emh group is taking the lead on building around 900 new homes across the East Midlands over the next five years after being awarded £26.6m in funding from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme.

As the lead investment partner of the Quantum consortium, emh group’s successful bid will see the delivery of an additional 331 rent-to-buy homes and 529 for shared ownership, plus six properties for sale to people with long-term disabilities. In addition to the 670 homes to be delivered by emh group, partners Wellingborough Homes will produce 100 homes, Futures Housing Group will produce 90, and Advance will deliver the six properties for disabled people.

Group chief executive, Chan Kataria, said: “I am pleased with the level of funding allocated which will have a huge impact on our building output, helping us to meet the local need for housing and stimulate economic growth.”

emh group has also had its A+ credit rating affirmed by Standard and Poor’s. The agency gave the Coalville-based organisation a ‘stable outlook’ despite the political and economic changes of the last 12 months.

“Retaining our A+ credit rating gets us off to a great start in 2017, and means we can continue to play our part in providing a range of low-cost options for rent and home ownership in our community,” said Chan Kataria.

Executive director of finance, Andrew Kilby, said: “We are proud to have maintained our A+ credit rating despite the 1% rent reduction and benefit cap. This demonstrates our strength as a business, which will allow us to focus on our ambition to deliver new homes.”