NatWest completes £2.8bn of lending to social housing sector in 2024
NatWest Group has today announced a progress update on its ambition to provide £5bn in new lending[i] to the UK social housing sector, with the bank confirming £2.8bn has already been provided up to 31 August 2024.
This progress means the bank has been able to support even more delivery and maintenance of housing within the sector, which is vital to the people and families who rely on social housing, as well as the wider economy.
NatWest Group aims to support home building within the sector across the UK, with recent notable projects and partnerships delivered by the bank including a £200m sustainability linked loan to Bromford, a housing association based in the Midlands. The loan will help Bromford build 1,300 new affordable homes across the West Midlands and West of England. NatWest has been a key strategic funding partner of Bromford for a number of years.
The bank has also committed to improving the supply chain skills which its customers may need to help drive retrofit projects across the UK, and last year launched a partnership with Supply Chain Sustainability School to help deliver this. This aims to help by sharing knowledge and nurturing the skills needed to retrofit homes and buildings across the UK. This should help raise standards across the industry, as well as boost confidence for those considering investing in retrofit.
NatWest has also supported Leeds Federated Housing Association Limited (LFHA), which owns and manages over 4,500 social homes across the Leeds city region. One of the housing association’s goals is to deliver 150 affordable quality new homes by 2026. In March 2024, NatWest provided a £55 million loan to help LFHA deliver new homes and provide working capital for its stock improvement programme which includes achieving an EPC ‘C’ rating or better for every home by 2030.
Paul Thwaite, CEO of NatWest Group, said: “Put simply, the UK needs more homes. That’s why NatWest is committed to boosting house building through its strong pipeline of lending to the sector. We’re making good progress, and are ahead of our ambition to provide £5bn in lending for UK social housing by the end of 2026. This lending will help to deliver more homes, stimulate local economies and provide greater stability to individuals and communities throughout the UK.”
Matthew Rose, director of treasury at Bromford, said: “We exist to provide safe, affordable homes to people who are unable to access them through the market. Our loan from NatWest allows us to continue our development programme to meet our ambition of building 11,000 new homes by 2032 with 65% at social and affordable rent tenures.”
“Our relationship with NatWest resulted in Bromford completing our first sustainable linked loan in 2019. This focused on improving the energy efficiency of our homes and has helped to enable our decarbonisation journey with 89% of our homes at EPC C or above as at 31 August 2024.”ⁱⁱ
[i] New funding gross of repayments and amortisations over three years from 1 January 2024 to year-end 2026
ⁱⁱ EPC stands for Energy Performance Certificate and tells you how energy efficient a property is. Please find more information here: Selling a home: Energy Performance Certificates – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
