Leading social housing provider Sovereign Network Group (SNG) has secured a £250 million funding deal with NatWest to support plans to build more than 25,000 homes over the next decade.
The housing provider owns and manages over 85,000 homes in communities across London, the South, West and East of England, and employs more than 2,000 people. The funding will also support SNG to roll out its sector-leading Homes and Place Standard to all its homes.
SNG recently launched a £1.5bn Euro Medium-Term Note (EMTN) programme which establishes the framework and documentation, enabling SNG to improve their access to debt capital markets and augment their existing £1.2bn of public debt funding.
The funds from this programme will be allocated according to SNG’s Sustainable Finance Framework and will support SNG in developing affordable housing across London and the South of England.
SNG have also established a new Loan Linked ISDA to achieve flexibility in how they manage the interest risk associated with this facility.
Anup Dholakia, Director of Treasury at SNG, said: “Building more genuinely affordable homes is vital to tackling the housing crisis. This funding deal with NatWest will help us progress our ambition to deliver 25,000 new homes over the course of this decade. Each one will meet our Homes and Place Standard — creating better places to live and thriving communities for our customers.
This balance sheet support, complemented by the loan linked ISDA, is a very attractive offering in the current economic environment and is very supportive to SNG’s social purpose objectives.”
Paul Eyre, Head of Residential and Housing Finance, NatWest, said: “SNG are committed to providing good, affordable homes that are the foundation thriving communities. They also aim to create thousands of new affordable homes every year. This latest funding agreement with NatWest will support SNG as they move forward with these ambitious plans.”
Dominic Brindley, Direct Financing and Risk Solutions, NatWest Markets, added, “We were delighted to be able to support SNG with the establishment of both the new EMTN programme and ISDA. Both pieces of work will allow SNG to be more agile in their approach to both funding and hedging allowing greater flexibility to choose strategies that make sense against a volatile market backdrop.”
NatWest is one of the largest lenders to the social housing sector in the UK, and this new funding package contributes towards NatWest’s ambition to lend £7.5 billion to the social housing sector by the end of 2026. The number has been upgraded from £5 billion announced in March 2024 as levels of demand for housing increase.
