05 January 2007
Two councils have received the go-ahead to raise £200m through the Private Finance Initiative as part of their efforts to meet the decent homes standard.
Salford plans to refurbish more than 2,000 homes, while North Tyneside expects to upgrade more than 1,000 sheltered properties.
A further two authorities — Leeds and the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham — were granted reserve places on the fifth housing PFI programme.
But both bids will be analysed more closely before the Department for Communities and Local Government gives final approval.
Councils have until December 2010 to bring their homes up to standard but most are relying on stock transfers or arm's-length management organisations to raise funds. Nine councils that submitted bids to build new social housing through the PFI will discover shortly if they have been successful.
Last year, six councils from earlier programmes signed PFI contracts. This included the London Borough of Croydon, which concluded its scheme within 26 months — the fastest housing PFI procurement to date.
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