NatWest raises social housing lending ambition to £7.5bn

Since announcing the original £5bn lending ambition, NatWest has agreed deals with several landlords: WDH, Eildon Housing Association, Thirteen Group, Golden Lane Housing, Incommunities and Stonewater. Other deals have included Bromford, Together Housing, Karbon Homes, Torus, Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association, Believe Housing, Westward Housing Group and Maryhill Housing Association.

Robert Begbie, chief executive for commercial and institutional banking at NatWest Group, said: “NatWest continues to be a leading lender to the UK social housing sector, and we are pleased at being able to increase our lending to the sector as demand continues to grow.

“The sector continues to be a key priority as we aim to help more people and families have access to housing. By further increasing our ambition to provide £7.5bn in funding by the end of next year, we will continue to drive growth in this important sector, supporting those who need it most.”

NatWest cited a 2024 report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research consultancy, the National Housing Federation and charity Shelter. This found that there was a net loss of nearly 12,000 social homes in 2023, while 1.3 million households are on a waiting list in England.

The bank said its lending to the sector will support the delivery, maintenance and retrofit of social housing in the UK.

Earlier this month, NatWest agreed a £30m, 15-year housing green retrofit loan (HGRL), in which the proceeds are specifically for retrofit projects.

The deal with WDH was part of a pilot scheme of its HGRLs in which the bank deployed £110m of funding across the North of England.

NatWest has now completed the pilots of its HGRLs and is “currently exploring opportunities” to establish how these pilots can be scaled up across the sector and support more housing providers in their retrofitting activities and green ambitions.

In February 2021, NatWest issued a €1bn affordable housing social bond, the first of its kind by a UK bank, using the bond proceeds to finance or refinance loans to not-for-profit registered housing associations operating in the UK.