City law firm Trowers & Hamlins has advised new social landlord Plymouth Community Homes on the largest ever housing stock transfer in the South West of England, in which all of Plymouth City Council’s 15,000 homes have been transferred to Plymouth Community Homes.
According to Trowers & Hamlins the investment programme that will follow the transfer will be one of the largest capital investment projects the City of Plymouth has ever seen. £1 billion of investment will be made in the city’s social housing over the next 30 years, facilitated by over £150m of grant funding from the Homes and Communities Agency and over £100m of private finance provided by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Rob Beiley, project partner at Trowers & Hamlins, comments: -The transfer will mean that over the next five years the residents of the city will benefit from £168 million of investment in their homes, demonstrating the continued importance of housing transfers in the regeneration of social housing in England and Wales.
-This was a challenging project for the firm. Quite apart from its size, this project involved the transfer of over 500 staff and arrangements for the wholescale demolition and rebuilding of two of the city’s estates. This presented a number of complex contractual and regulatory issues to address as well as an innovative funding structure to put in place.
Trowers & Hamlins have acted for Plymouth Community Homes on the project since the City Council started tenant consultation in 2007. The project involved specialist solicitors from the firm’s Public Sector, Banking and Pensions teams, its Procurement team as well as Real Estate lawyers from both its London and Exeter offices.
Anthony Collins Solicitors acted for Plymouth City Council and Addleshaw Goddard acted for Royal Bank of Scotland plc.
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