COUNCIL chiefs are set to approve an £85 million loan arrangement with a housing provider.

The executive board is recommended to approve the council entering into a maximum £85 million, seven-year loan facility with Citystyle Living Limited, a subsidiary of One Housing Group, in order to generate income for the authority at its meeting on Monday.

The loan would be funded from the current three-year capital programme, which was agreed by the full council in February.

One Housing Group is a London-based housing provider, with around 15,000 properties over 27 London boroughs and the surrounding area.

It is London's largest provider of housing to residents with complex needs.

The loan has been negotiated on a full commercial loan basis.

In his report to members, deputy council leader Cllr Russ Bowden said the arrangement will be subject to stringent corporate governance procedures.

He added: "It will be regularly monitored by the treasury management team working closely with legal and estates, in line with the covenants of the contract.

"These resources will be reviewed on an ongoing basis in order to continue to provide a professional service that our borrowers require and to maintain the council's good reputation in the area of corporate finance.

"Loan updates will be given quarterly to the audit and corporate governance committee as part of their quarterly treasury management monitoring reports.

"Quarterly updates will be given to the treasury management board and full council will be updated twice a year via the treasury management strategy report and the treasury management mid-year update report.

"The loan will also be incorporated into the council's risk registers."

Some of the financial details surrounding the arrangement will be discussed in part two in private.

As well as generating income for the council, the investment is planned to accelerate the construction of homes.

Citystyle Living Limited says it is only the first step of a competitive procurement process involving a number of shortlisted lenders.

It added that it will only borrow the authority’s funds if Warrington becomes its preferred lender.

In October, the executive board approved the council entering into a seven-year, £42.5 million loan facility with Nuvu Living (Liverpool Waters) LLP, owned by Your Housing Group (YHG).

Members also extended YHG's previous £10 million loan facility with the authority.