Town & Country beats credit crunch with £150 million deal

Town & Country Housing Group has beaten the credit crunch and signed agreements for a £150 million loan facility with Dexia and Barclays.

Town & Country has an existing £300 million facility with Nationwide but needs the new funding to support its continuing development programme.

It is one of the Housing Corporations Development Partners and currently has around 1,000 homes under construction.

Chief executive Jon Rosser said: The substantial loan facilities from Dexia and Barclays mean that we have ample resources to support our plans for new homes and for estate renewal.

The exact numbers we build over the next couple of years will depend on how the market develops, but we look forward to working closely with our developer partners to provide as many new homes as possible.

Our ability to raise funds in the current climate has been a tremendous achievement. We met with five banks and provided each with a comprehensive financial and business information package. The strength of this package and the reputation Town & Country enjoys was such that we received offers from every bank.

Following a review with our Board members, we decided to split the loan facility, with £100 million from Dexia and £50 million from Barclays. Both Dexia and Barclays offered us very attractive deals.

Town & Country provides more than 7,000 affordable homes in Kent, Sussex, Surrey and Greater London. It is based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.