Leeds City Council set to provide £3m housing boost

Councillors at a meeting of the executive board tomorrow are set to rubber-stamp recommendations for Leeds City Council to issue a loan for more than £3m to St George’s Crypt and LATCH (Leeds Action to Create Homes).

It will see the provision and development of new affordable, supported housing for the homeless or those most in need of housing.

St George’s Crypt will get £2.3m and LATCH £676,000 in what will be a first for the council in acting as a lender to provide loan funding to back the development of new, affordable, supported housing in the city.

It comes after the services approached the council last autumn with proposals and business plans to acquire and refurbish existing properties and build new units for the benefit of vulnerable people in Leeds in a continuation of the work they do as individual organisations.

LATCH is looking at refurbishing eight empty properties to provide four two-bedroom family homes and four one-bed properties while St George’s Crypt has three projects in the pipeline.

These include creating 150 new units over the coming years, demolition of the existing Regent’s Terrace hostel in Hyde Park to make way for a 14 unit apartment development and also a 23 apartment development at Hedley Chase with 12 two-bed and 11 one-bed self-contained apartments.

A council spokesperson said: “The innovative approach which the council is taking to act as a lender to a housing providers’ scheme will assist in increasing the number of new affordable homes within the city as well as helping to meet a number of council priorities.”