Bank pledged total loan of £5bn to help decarbonise social housing sector
Thirteen Group has secured a £30m loan from NatWest to deliver a programme of retrofit works across its property portfolio in the North East.
The deal aims to help 35,000-home housing association Thirteen achieve its goal of reducing carbon emissions by 100 per cent by 2050, in line with government targets.
The agreed funding is part of the pilot phase of Natwest’s Housing Green Retrofit Loan (HGRL), which aims to make social homes greener.
In March 2024, the bank announced plans to provide £5bn in lending to the UK social housing sector between January 2024 and year-end 2026. This goal was revealed after the company had already handed out nearly £3bn of loans in 2023.
>>See also: Barclays and Lloyds strike deal with National Wealth Fund to lend £1bn for social housing retrofit
>>See also: We must stop squabbling and retrofit now – there is no time to lose
David Horne, relationship director real estate finance at NatWest, said: “We have had a long-term relationship with Thirteen, who are committed to building and maintaining high quality sustainable housing across the communities they operate in. This funding will enable the group to move forward with works to support what is a significant upcoming investment to help transition their existing properties towards net-zero.
“It has been great to work with a forward-thinking organisation like Thirteen in order to successfully complete the pilot phase or our Housing Green Retrofit Loan roll-out, and hopefully, this will help continue to provide their tenant base with affordable homes that are sustainable in the long-term.”
NatWest is a member of a retrofit consortium including Places for People, British Gas, Sero - a net zero partner for social housing - and built environment climate technology company Tallarna.
In August 2023, it announced plans to decarbonise 1,000 social homes owned by Places for People to trial a new financial model of funding retrofit projects.
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