In December 2014, the Department for Communities and Local Government finally appointed a manager for its long awaited £3.5bn guarantees fund for new private rented sector (PRS) homes. PRS Operations Limited, a subsidiary of credit-asset manager Venn Partners, will run the scheme which is aimed to draw in institutional investment in PRS homes.

Initially, up to £3.5bn in government-backed loans will be made available to landlords looking to invest at least £10m for new homes available for private rent. There will be an option to increase this to £6.5bn in future.

PRS Operations will arrange up to £3.5bn of funding - and then offer a series of smaller loans to eligible landlords looking to build PRS housing. It is similar to a £3.5bn guarantees scheme for affordable housing, run by Affordable Housing finance, a subsidiary of The Housing Finance Corporation.

Venn will be responsible for establishing and managing the Scheme, including the origination, underwriting and on-going management of the loans, and developing and managing a new Government guaranteed bond programme to efficiently fund them.