Mayor's Mettle Gives Anvil A Bang For His Bucks

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The Mayor of London has shown a bit of nerve with a £50 million loan facility for housing developer, Mount Anvil, to help the capital’s construction and housing sector bounce back from coronavirus.

The funding will enable the London-centric Mount Anvil to accelerate the purchase of new sites and deliver an increased number of new homes.

The partnership is the first of its kind between GLA Land and Property and a private developer. Through this collaboration Mount Anvil is now accelerating construction of the next 2,000 homes in its pipeline and continuing its rapid expansion of land buying activity as part of its strategy to deliver 10,000 homes in London before the end of the decade.

As part of this, the developer will deliver 1,400 new homes by the end of March 2025.

The agreement has been designed to have key principles that draw on work that Mount Anvil is already doing and are in line with a business model which includes commitments regarding equality and diversity, as well as confirming existing commitments such as never building separate entrances to segregate tenants in social properties from their private neighbours. It’s hoped that this will form a model for future funding agreements with GLA Land and Property. 

 “In these uncertain times I am delighted to be able to confirm this new loan facility for Mount Anvil, one of London’s most dynamic property developers.”

– Tom Copley 

London, Deputy Mayor for Housing

Desperate need

“It is vital that London emerges from the lockdown with a renewed focus on delivering the social and other genuinely affordable homes our city so desperately needs," continues Copley. "Funding arrangements such as this will ensure that our private sector partners can accelerate their plans for the next decade and, crucially, increase delivery of much needed affordable homes."

Marcus Bate, Investment Director for Mount Anvil said: “The funding provides us with huge capacity to invest in the best available new development sites in London. We’re putting all our eggs in the London basket.  We’re looking forward to playing our part in supporting London’s bounce back  after Covid-19.”

This announcement comes as the Mayor’s Covid-19 Housing Delivery Taskforce, chaired by Tom Copley, considers how the sector and the city will emerge from the coronavirus crisis.

Reduced building

Analysis by the estate agent Savills estimates that the coronavirus has led to construction being halted on sites involving 28,600 homes in London, equivalent to 79 per cent of total supply in 2018/19. Savills also found that most larger housebuilders have halted new acquisitions and fewer sites are being brought to market.

Picture: Mount Anvil has continued despite the coronavirus crisis including making significant progress on this site in Whitechapel.

Article written by Cathryn Ellis
03rd June 2020

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