Notting Hill Housing Trust
| Founded | 1963 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Reverend Bruce Kenrick |
| Type | Housing Association |
| Focus | Housing |
| Location | |
|
Area served
|
London |
|
Key people
|
Kate Davies (CEO) [2] |
| Website | www |
Notting Hill Housing (NHH) is a social enterprise and registered charity providing affordable housing for Londoners. Originally launched in 1963 in Notting Hill, it now manages more than 28,000 homes across London and is a member of the G15 group of London housing associations. As of 2014[update] NHH has the top-level ratings from the regulator, G1 for governance and V1 for viability.
In 1963, Bruce Kenrick moved to Notting Hill and was shocked at the poor quality of housing that people were forced to live in. He began a fundraising drive, with the aim to raise enough money to buy one home to house several homeless families. As Michael White has written: "Its first fundraiser was a stall on the Portobello Road market which raised £24. But Kenrick, a man of charismatic energy, which alternated with bouts of sometimes severe depression, learned quickly. Backed by clerical allies such Donald Mason, Geoffrey Ainger and Ken Bartlett, and concerned local people such as Sidney Miller and Pansy Jeffrey, the Trust's first advert - placed in the Guardian - raised £20,000. It was unprecedented." Notting Hill Housing Trust was born, and in its first year it bought five houses and housed 57 people. Within five years, it became a large presence in west London, housing nearly 1,000 people.
John Coward, who joined the Trust in 1965, was the first employee and then the first Chief Executive. When he started, it had five properties; when he retired 21 years later, it was managing almost 8,000. The Trust raised funds from the public to buy dilapidated properties at auction. By renovating these houses to provide decent, affordable rented housing, it meant that some poor residents were not pushed out of the area.
Over the years it has taken over various smaller housing associations, including three in 2009: Presentation, Croydon Peoples and Pathway, which took its housing stock to 25,000.
Housing associations finance acquisitions and major repairs by borrowing, secured on their housing properties. In 2012 NHH borrowed £250 million by a bond issue at a record low interest rate for the sector of 3.78 per cent.
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