You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Specialist housing association wins £1m tampon tax funding
A housing association which specialises in providing homes for refugees and migrants has been awarded £1m from the ‘Tampon Tax Fund’.
Arhag, which owns around 1,000 homes across 14 London boroughs, will use the cash to set up new education and employment projects for black and minority ethnic women, as well as initiatives helping people escape gender-based violence.
The money comes from a £15m fund raised through taxes on tampons, administered by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Under EU rules, the government is required to charge VAT on women’s sanitary products.
READ MORE
“This is vital funding which will ensure that the next stage of our plans to expand services to vulnerable migrants and refugees in the capital will begin on a very stable financial footing,” said Cedric Boston, chief executive of Arhag.
“Arhag is undergoing an exciting phase of development, by placing non-housing activities on a par with our services to tenants and establishing a hub of services for the most vulnerable members of the BME community.”
Arhag will run the new projects alongside BME social enterprises Olmec, Doctors of the World, Migrants’ Rights Network, Praxis Community Projects and the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation.
It is also supported by BME National, a network of more than 60 BME housing associations.
