Peterborough’s Accent Housing unveils new plans to build 2,500 homes

Accent Housing, in Stuart House, in St John’s Street, wants to construct 500 new homes annually for the next five years.

The announcement comes just weeks after the association successfully completed a £350 million bond issue.

The money raised from the record breaking issue - the first 30 year, own name bond in the housing sector to secure a coupon rate of interest payable to investors of under 3 per cent - at 2.625 per cent - will fund the house building move.

Sarah Ireland, Accent’s Executive Director of Development & Growth, said: “This is a really exciting time for Accent.

“Our plans for development and growth have been in the making for over a year and with our new and very experienced sales and development team, we can really focus on building our new homes.

“We are ready to get out there and make our own contribution to help resolve the national housing crisis caused by the lack of affordable housing in so many of our communities.

She added: “We will also invest in our existing homes. They will offer the best possible design and efficiency standards so they are high quality, safe, secure and affordable for our residents to live in.”

The association will build more than half of the homes in areas where the association already provides homes, including Peterborough, and in new areas, such as Bedfordshire The properties will be available for rent, shared ownership and rent to buy.

Accent currently owns and manages more than 20,500 homes across the country, with more than 4,500 in and around Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.