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  • NatWest Group announced in March 2024 its ambition to provide £5 billion lending to the UK social housing sector between 1 January 2024 and the end of 2026
  • The aim is to bring NatWest Group lending to the UK social housing sector between 1 January 2020 and end 2026 to over £11 billion
  • The bank has now provided £2.8 billion in lending to the sector since the start of 2024 

 

NatWest Group has today announced a progress update on its ambition to provide  £5 billion in new lending[i] to the UK social housing sector, with the bank confirming £2.8 billion 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 £200 million 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 £5 billion 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  

Notes for Editors

Please find more information about NatWest Group’s ambition to provide  £5 billion in lending to the UK social housing sector here.

Further details on the Bromford deal can be found here.

 

About NatWest Group

NatWest Group serves customers in the UK supporting them with their personal, private, and business banking needs. NatWest aims to help customers at all stages in their lives, from opening student accounts, to buying their first home, setting up a business, and saving for retirement. Alongside a wide range of banking services, NatWest offers businesses specialist sector knowledge in areas such as manufacturing and technology, as well as access to specialist entrepreneurial support.

 

Caution about this announcement. This announcement has been prepared by NatWest Group plc (together with its subsidiaries the ‘NatWest Group’) and it does not purport to be comprehensive and it does not provide any form of legal, tax, investment, accounting, financial or other advice. The ‘bank’ refers to NatWest Group.

This announcement contains unaudited management information derived from management systems that are subject to different controls to those used in financial reporting and also include manual processes -  this may result in the information presented in this report being less comparable, verifiable, timely, understandable and useful for the purposes of decision-making than information in our financial reports. This announcement also includes financial, statistical and other information and data published by third parties that have not been independently verified by NatWest Group. To the extent permitted by law, NatWest Group makes no representation, warranty or assurance of any kind, express or implied, or takes no responsibility or liability as to the fairness, accuracy, reliability, reasonableness, correctness or completeness of third parties’ data included in this announcement or any of the opinions or conclusions expressed in these sections.

 

Caution about Forward-looking Statements in this announcement.

This announcement contains forward-looking statements, aims, ambitions, estimates, intentions, plans and projections, including but not limited to NatWest Group’s ambition to provide £5 billion in lending to the UK social housing sector between 1 January 2024 and year-end 2026 and the projection of such lending for the rest of 2024.

Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that might cause actual results and performance to differ materially from any expected future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to differences in current expectations include, but are not limited to, future growth initiatives, the outcome of legal, regulatory and governmental actions and investigations, the level and extent of future impairments and write-downs, legislative, political, fiscal and regulatory developments, accounting standards, competitive conditions, technological developments, interest and exchange rate fluctuations, general economic and political conditions and the impact of climate-related risks and the transitioning to a net zero economy.

Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements.

This cautionary statement should not be regarded as a complete and comprehensive statement and should be read together with the ‘Risk Factors’ contained in the NatWest Group plc 2023 Annual Report and Accounts published on 16 February 2024.

The forward-looking statements contained in this document speak only as of the date of this document and NatWest Group does not assume or undertake any obligation or responsibility to update any of the forward-looking statements contained in this document, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent legally required.

[1] 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)

The information contained in our press releases is intended solely for journalists and media and should not be used by consumers to make financial decisions. Terms and conditions apply to any products or services mentioned in our press releases.

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