Climate, ESG and Sustainable Finance for Housing Associations

Rates, currencies and certain financing products are provided by NatWest Markets Plc in the UK and by NatWest Markets NV in the EU and its subsidiaries. For more information, please visit our ring-fencing page. Finance is subject to status. Security may be required. Product fees may apply.

Ariel view of modern housing estate in development.

About us

We are a key bank for Housing Associations in the UK. We have committed a loan volume of over £14 billion to more than 250 Housing Associations and arranged significant volumes of capital markets issuances for the sector.

We are working closely with Housing Associations to define their sustainability strategies and we have supported many of them with the structuring of their ESG frameworks. We have also been a driver of the Sustainability Reporting Standard (SRS) for Social Housing, which provides a voluntary reporting framework for housing providers to report on their ESG performance consistently and with transparency.

How we could support your institution

Hedging solutions

We could help you manage your key market risk exposures (interest rates and inflation) through derivatives such as swaps and options.

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Public Bond Financing

We could advise and support you in accessing funding in the public debt markets, and we have an active trading desk supporting liquidity in the sector.

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Private Placement Financing

We provide bespoke funding solutions for a broad range of tenors, sectors and structures for privately placed debt finance with global investors.

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Investment Solutions

We offer a range of investment products and structures which could enable you to enhance yields and make attractive returns on cash.

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Sustainable Finance

NatWest is a specialist in sustainable finance across both bank and capital markets having supported many issuers, including those in the Social Housing sector, with the structuring of their Sustainable Finance Frameworks.

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Our work

We are proud that our customers recognise our unique offering and customer service as well as our sector and sustainability capabilities:

Anthony Marriott, Director of Treasury & Corporate Finance at Peabody: “We are grateful to the NatWest team across all workstreams for their advice and expertise. Our work together includes collaborating on the inaugural Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing, supporting our regular updates to investors, helping to establish Peabody’s Sustainable Finance Framework, and most recently securing a successful sustainability bond issuance. The interest from a wide range of investors reflects Peabody’s strong ESG credentials, and, following this positive result, we look forward to continuing our work with NatWest going forward.”
Alex Fitzgerald, Head of Treasury and Regulation, Flagship Housing Group: “Thank you to the NatWest team to help us achieve our sustainable bond issuance. The support and knowledge from the team on the ESG reporting, Sustainable Finance Framework and market perceptions to the wider strategic and operational aspects of the Group was fantastic.”
Emma Palmer, Chief Executive, Eastlight Community Homes: “We thank the whole NatWest team for helping us to achieve such a strong outcome. Our Board and Committee members are equally pleased with the investors we attracted, which allows us to develop a number of new strategic relationships”

Product Innovation and Partnership

The launch of our inaugural Affordable Housing Social Bond at the beginning of 2021, the first of its kind by a UK bank, demonstrates our commitment to Housing Associations; we have pledged to provide £3 billion of funding to the affordable housing sector by the end of 2022. As signatories of the UN Principles for Responsible Banking, we have also aligned our strategy with the 2015 Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and we are making good progress in achieving our climate ambitions.

Furthermore, innovative products, which we have developed in partnership with our customers, such as, for example, Green or ESG-linked Commercial Paper (CP) Programmes, ESG-linked FX forward products, and ESG linked Revolving Credit Facilities (RCF) are proof that we work hand in hand with our customers to further shape sustainable financing tools.

Alongside ESG product development, we also help Housing Associations define their ESG strategy and become ESG prepared and offer structuring advice such as KPI definitions on ESG-linked products. We also provide more bespoke solutions such as KPI-linked derivatives, implementing carbon offsetting strategies and optimising capital considerations.

Our customers

We are proud to have celebrated a number of sustainability ‘firsts’ with our Housing Association customers. You can read in more detail about these transactions on our Case Studies page – or see recent examples of our work below:

Places for People

We supported Places for People with their inaugural Sustainability Bond as they looked to finance and refinance projects in the following categories: Affordable Housing, Green Buildings and Energy Efficiency.

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Platform Housing Group

We helped Platform Housing Group establish its £1 billion euro medium-term note (EMTN) programme.

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Caledonia Housing Association

We helped Origin secure £120 million funding through a Green Private Placement (PP); the first green PP for the Housing Association.

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Insights

Furthermore, we also support our research teams in providing ESG insights and content that aligns with our customers’ needs and challenges. This can be found on our Sustainability Hub and on Agile Markets.

You can also access some recent examples of our insights below: