I CAN assure Mr Edwards (Intentions of housing association worry me, Oxford Mail, April 11 2011) that he has no need to worry about our intentions. GreenSquare has a full understanding of, and commitment to, social housing, including both council housing and housing association homes.

Oxford Citizens Housing Association (OCHA) is part of the GreenSquare group and has owned and managed social housing in Oxford since 1866. Westlea Housing Association – formed in 1995 to own and manage the council housing in north Wiltshire – is also part of the group.

We are proud to have already worked in close partnership with Oxford City Council, both as OCHA and GreenSquare, to provide many high quality social housing homes in Oxford for people who cannot afford to rent or buy property on the open market.

Alongside this we actively support and fund a range of initiatives to support and strengthen community life. Our recent work at Rose Hill is a good example of this in both respects.

The project to redevelop the two sites in Northway and one in Cowley is one we are thrilled to be taking forward. Our organisation strapline clearly explains that we are committed to “housing people, building communities” and this project really supports that aspiration as it will provide many high quality new homes and community centre facilities.

It will also create a new shop and furniture workshop for the homeless charity Emmaus.

We are working closely with the city council to maximise the number of new homes available for social housing rent at Northway and Cowley and think that there will be 45 or more.

In addition we plan to have about 30 homes for shared ownership, enabling the increasing number of local people who can’t get a mortgage to buy a home outright, to part-buy, part- rent, and get a foot on the property ladder.

The 30 or so homes planned for private sale will not only help finance the development of the social housing but will also ensure that these are mixed developments for a range of residents from varied economic backgrounds.

Mr Edwards quotes from the website of our commercial subsidiary Oakus, and is absolutely right to say that its aim is to “maximise income from commercial operations, in order to reinvest in social housing and services”.

In a changing world, where the building of new homes will not usually be subsidised by government grant, we must find ways of financing the development of the social housing much-needed in Oxfordshire and beyond.

ANDREW SMITH, OCHA managing director, GreenSquare Executive, Barns Road, Oxford