The Scottish Government has awarded a new contract to Allia with a commitment to invest a further £25 million in the finance provider’s bond programme for Scottish housing associations.

Since 2014 the Scottish Government has invested nearly £70m in Allia’s bonds to support the development of affordable housing across Scotland.

To date, Allia’s bond programme has provided medium-term unsecured loans for nine housing associations around the country, including Kingdom Housing Association in Fife and Hjaltland Housing Association in Shetland.

Together these loans are expected to provide over 900 new affordable homes across Scotland. In addition, the interest that will be paid on these loans has enabled the creation of a grant fund of over £16m to support the delivery of homes for those on the lowest incomes.

The loans made through Allia’s bond programme for Scotland include:

Awarded to Allia following a full public procurement process, the new contract now provides a further £25 million for investment in bonds in the current financial year.

Housing minister Kevin Stewart said: “Innovative financing schemes such as charitable bonds play a major role in helping us to deliver our five-year commitment to provide at least 50,000 affordable homes during the lifetime of this Parliament.

“Our investment of a further £25m this year in Allia’s bond programme is expected to provide around £18m in unsecured loan finance for Scottish housing associations and up to £7m in grant funding for the development of new social housing.

Phil Caroe, director of social finance at Allia, said: “Allia is delighted to secure another £25m to continue our lending programme in Scotland. Our unsecured loans are helping to fund the development of new affordable homes across the country, and we look forward to working with more housing associations and supporting them with this new funding.”