Trowers & Hamlins has acted for Affordable Housing Finance Plc (AHF), a subsidiary of long-standing client The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC), in relation to its successful bid to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to enter into an exlusive licence to offer guaranteed long-term debt to provide registered providers. Through the scheme, DCLG will gurantee up to £3.5bn of debt for AHF on terms of up to 30 years.

The firm provided advice on all legal aspects of the bid for the licence, which will see AHF perform a similar role to THFC in aggregating the individual funding needs of private registered providers into market-size amounts that can be funded on a long-term basis in the capital markets or via the European Investment Bank.  THFC is the largest issuer of social housing-backed bonds in the UK, having issued over £1.1bn of rated long-term debt on behalf of 63 providers since 2004.  It has also worked with the European Investment Bank in investing funding in housing regeneration, energy efficient housing supply and retro-fit since 1998.

Jennie Gubbins, partner at Trowers & Hamlins who led on the deal, commented:  "We are delighted to have worked with THFC and AHF on this exciting project which, it is hoped, will help to unlock additional funding on more favourable terms for the sector and so enable the sector to provide more homes."

The Trowers & Hamlins team was led by Jennie Gubbins and also included Ian Dobinson and Naomi Roper.