Housing associations can help meet the increasing demand for affordable housing and are well-placed to solve long-term housing problems, the Tennant Services Authority (TSA) has said. The authority's quarterly survey of housing associations has revealed they still have strong access to finance and already has most of their debt covered for the coming 12 months.

"Building homes through housing associations remains one of the strongest - if not the strongest - public private partnerships in the UK construction market," says TSA's chief executive, Peter Marsh. Mr Marsh has also welcomed the steps taken by the Homes and Communities Agency to provide associations with additional funding. The TSA survey, he said, "shows housing associations are well placed to continue to build the new homes that England needs". According to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders, property sales have fallen, as have the number of but-to-let mortgages agreed by the banks. The latest CML data has revealed buy-to-let lending fell 12 per cent in the final quarter of 2008.

Source: Direct News 24/2/09