Yorkshire Housing has secured a significant £75 million funding deal with Lloyds and NatWest to support its growth and investment plans aimed at addressing the region's housing needs.

The deal includes a £40 million sustainability-linked loan from Lloyds and £35 million from NatWest, which will enable the housing provider to continue building affordable, high-quality, and sustainable homes across Yorkshire.

Lloyds' contribution includes a tailored sustainability-linked loan, which offers Yorkshire Housing the opportunity to earn discounts on the loan if specific environmental and housing targets are met. These targets focus on delivering new affordable homes, upgrading existing properties to an EPC rating of C or higher by 2030, and increasing the installation of solar PV systems in the housing stock.

The new funding from NatWest strengthens the long-standing relationship between the two organisations. NatWest has consistently provided short and long-term funding solutions to support Yorkshire Housing's growth and sustainability objectives. Recently, NatWest announced a new ambition to lend £7.5 billion to the social housing sector between January 2024 and December 2026, an increase from the original £5 billion target set in March 2024, in response to growing demand for quality social housing. NatWest is one of the largest lenders to the UK’s social housing sector.

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Yorkshire Housing currently owns and manages approximately 20,000 homes across the region. As part of its ongoing commitment to tackling the housing crisis, the organisation aims to build 8,000 new homes in the coming years. To date, it has completed more than 2,100 homes, with another 2,000 under construction across various tenures, including shared ownership, affordable rent, social rent, and rent-to-buy.

Rob Parkes, Executive Director of Finance and Governance at Yorkshire Housing, said: "We continue to work hard to deliver our ambitious investment and growth plans, to ensure we meet our commitment of providing much-needed homes in Yorkshire.

"We are pleased to have a long-standing relationship with Lloyds and NatWest given their knowledge and expertise of the housing sector and particularly given our shared aim of creating much-needed homes to address the housing crisis."

In addition to its housing developments, Yorkshire Housing plans to create over 60 apprenticeship roles over the next five years across a range of programmes, including surveying, engineering, property maintenance and finance. To date, 182 apprentices have successfully completed Yorkshire Housing's apprenticeship programme, further demonstrating the organisation's commitment to local employment and skills development.