A new housing finance scheme has been launched by the Welsh Government.

The package includes around £120m of Welsh Government funding over the next 30 years and will contribute directly to the building of over 1,000 new affordable homes across in Wales.

Twenty Housing Associations are taking part in the scheme, with coverage across all 22 local authority areas in Wales. Construction work on the first projects will commence in 2013.

As part of the scheme, M&G Investments are providing the main new source of finance for Wales's Registered Social Landlords, in light of the lack of long term funding currently available from the banks and building societies.

Carl Sargeant, Minister for Housing and Regeneration said: "Delivering quality, affordable housing to the people of Wales is my priority and so I am delighted to launch this important and innovative new package today.

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"It's vital that the private and public sectors are supported in building new homes so that we can continue to work towards, and indeed exceed our target of providing 7,500 affordable homes during the term of this Welsh Government.

"This scheme is just the beginning in my search for new ways of increasing housing supply in Wales. Building new homes is important not only in meeting the growing housing need of communities but also as a way of providing work to help people out of poverty and to counter the highly damaging effects of the UK Government's 'bedroom tax'."

Jane Hutt, Minister for Finance said: "The Welsh Housing Finance Grant Scheme shows our commitment to finding new and innovative ways of investing in affordable housing across Wales. As budgets get tighter we have to consider all avenues of funding that are available to us to help us deliver our priorities.

"This scheme is a real example of what can be achieved when the public sector and private sector work together. Following the success of this initiative, I now hope we can use this type of funding to generate more investment in affordable housing."

(CD/JP)