NatWest launches £500m loan facility for social rent

NatWest has launched a £500m “first-of-its-kind” financing ringfenced for the building of social rent housing across the UK.  

The loans will be made available to eligible housing associations, which are existing customers of the bank. The social loans will be offered with discounted interest margins and no arrangement fee. 

NatWest CEO Paul Thwaite said: “We’re proud to be a major lender to the UK social housing sector and are committed to the role we can play in supporting house building. The housing crisis is one of the biggest issues facing our country which is why we have made a £7.5 billion lending ambition to the social housing sector.   

“As part of this, our first-of-its-kind £500 million social loan offering is the latest support for our customers to help social rent house building across the UK. With over 1.3 million people on social housing waiting lists, this is a step in the right direction to help those who need it most.” 

According to government data, more than 1.3 million households are on social housing waiting lists. The National Housing Federation is calling for 90,000 social homes to be built each year in England, over the next 10 years to address the housing crisis.

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Liz Laurence, Director of The Royal Foundation’s Homewards programme, said: “Homelessness is a societal issue that requires a collective response, and we hope more organisations will be inspired to play their part as a result of NatWest’s significant commitment today.” 

NatWest has an ambition to lend £7.5bn to the social housing sector by 2026, a target which was upgraded from the £5bn announced in March 2024 due to rising demand for housing. 

It recently announced a partnership with the National Wealth Fund with NatWest agreeing to loan up to £500 million to help with lending to retrofit existing social homes.

Last month the Sovereign Network Group (SNG) announced it had secured a £250m deal with NatWest to support its plans to build more than 25,000 homes over the next decade.