SIX housing associations will form a partnership to help Warrington tackle a shortfall of affordable homes.
They will get together at a special workshop to be held later in the summer to agree on how the partnership will work and decide how to respond to changes in the housing market.
The six are Warrington Housing Association, Arena Housing and the Muir Housing Group – who all have long-standing partnerships with the borough council – Golden Gates Housing, who are to become a housing association following a vote by tenants, and two new partners.
They are the St Helens-based Helena Partnerships and the Plus Dane Group, which has more than 15,000 homes across Cheshire and Merseyside.
Warrington faces a shortfall of 419 affordable homes per year for the period 2008-2013 compared with 42 per annum for the period 2001-2008.
This is despite falling house prices and could have arisen at least partly because of increases in deposits required by banks and building societies.
Plus Dane already has 178 affordable homes in the pipeline in Warrington at Edgewater Park, Chapelford Urban Village, Walton Locks and Saxon Park.
Golden Gates Housing, with more than 8,000 properties, has the largest stock of social housing in the borough.
Four other housing associations expressed an interest in joining the partnership but the council selected Helena and Plus Dane following a rigorous selection process.
