WDH secures £30m loan from NatWest to support retrofit works

The deal with WDH was part of a pilot scheme of its HGRLs in which NatWest deployed £110m of funding across the North of England. It follows a £50m loan to Thirteen Group under the pilot scheme last month.

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

Neil Warren, executive director of resources at WDH, said: “Supporting our customers to live in safe, warm homes is our number-one priority. This funding is going to help us to do that for even more people.

“Our customers face increasing financial pressures so anything we can do to support them to reduce their bills through the use of energy-efficient solutions, whilst working toward our carbon reduction targets and maintaining high-quality assets, is fantastic.”

The £30m loan to WDH takes the provider’s total funding package from NatWest to £300m.

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

David Horne, relationship director, real estate finance at NatWest, said: “We recognise that we have an important role to play in supporting social housing providers like WDH with the specialist funding they need to deliver on their green priorities while creating new affordable housing.

“It’s clear that WDH is committed to improving its housing stock by making properties sustainable in the long term while meeting the housing needs of their tenants and we are delighted to play our part in helping them realise their ambitions.”

On the deal, Trowers & Hamlins served as WDH’s lawyers while Addleshaw Goddard worked for NatWest.

In November, the housing association retained its top G1/V1 grades with the Regulator of Social Housing.

According to its results for 2023-24, the landlord’s pre-tax surplus rose from £7.4m in 2022-23 to £20.9m in the last financial year.