Large North East landlord agrees £30m retrofit loan from major bank

Andrew McColl, interim chief finance officer at Thirteen, said: “This additional £30m funding will enable us to accelerate our retrofit programme, benefiting thousands of customers by making their homes more energy efficient.”

The borrowing is under NatWest’s Housing Green Retrofit Loan (HGRL) initiative, in which the proceeds are specifically for retrofit projects. 

The deal with Thirteen was one among a pilot scheme in which NatWest deployed £110m of funding across the North of England. Thirteen was the third recipient of a loan under the scheme. 

Social Housing understands NatWest has now completed the pilot of its HGRLs.

Last March NatWest said it was aiming to provide £5bn of lending to UK housing associations over the next three calendar years.

The latest loan is part of Thirteen’s recent funding strategy, which also included a refinancing of existing revolving credit facilities and securing £100m from the government-backed Affordable Homes Guarantee Scheme just over a year ago.

Across all the landlord’s leaders, total facilities have increased from around £470m to around £615m. 

NatWest highlighted that it will continue to be one of Thirteen’s “main strategic funding partners”, with the £30m loan putting its total funding package with the landlord at £211m.