The loan will help Home Scotland deliver just under 900 homes across the country over the next five years, which include a mix of social rent and mid-market rent.

The Charitable Bond programme provides simple, unsecured loans to housing associations for up to 15 years, while the interest paid over the life of the loan funds a grant programme for social housing subsidies. Since the programme started in 2014, the Scottish Government has invested nearly £400m in charitable bonds with the Allia Group.

Audrey Simpson, director of Home Scotland, said: “We’re delighted to have secured the loan from Allia. The funding will support the delivery of our development programme across Scotland. It’s also great to see that the interest we pay on the loan will be used to fund more social rented homes.

“We’re extremely pleased to have Allia as a funding partner in Scotland. We found the Allia C&C team excellent to work with - lots of willingness to work together to ensure the loan met our needs and the agreement is written in a way to enable future drawdowns if we want to borrow more.”

Housing minister Paul McLennan said: “Scotland has led the UK in providing affordable housing with over 118,000 homes delivered since 2007. We are pleased we have been able to invest nearly £400m in charitable bonds with the Allia Group since 2014 to support the delivery of affordable housing. This investment has in turn generated £113m in charitable donations which are available to be reinvested in social rented homes.

“This £15m loan to Home Scotland will deliver homes for mid-market and social rent which will contribute to our target of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which at least 70% will be available for social rent.”

Peter Freer, director for Scotland at Allia C&C, said: “We’re pleased to welcome Home Scotland as a new borrower under the Charitable Bond programme. Over the last 9 years our partnership with Scottish Government has supported housing associations both large and small, across the whole of Scotland to develop more new, affordable homes.”