News13.02.23by James WilmoreA Merseyside-based landlord has secured a new sustainability-linked £40m loan to help build 280 new homes and retrofit existing stock. Picture: GettySharelinesA Merseyside-based landlord has secured a new £40m loan to help build 280 new homes and retrofit existing stock #UKhousing South Liverpool Homes (SLH), which operates around 3,800 homes, has agreed the new loan with NatWest.
The term length and interest rate was not disclosed, but a NatWest spokesperson described it as a “long-dated loan funding package”.
The spokesperson was unable to say if SLH’s interest rate would be affected by meeting the undisclosed sustainability targets. The new energy-efficient homes the funding will support will be a split between affordable rent and shared ownership.
Mark Chambers, executive director of finance at SLH, said: “This deal will allow us to make significant progress against our sustainability objectives and help us build new homes to the highest level of efficiency as well as improve the efficiency of our existing homes.”
In its last full year to March 2022, SLH reported a post-tax surplus of £3.3m on turnover of £20.5m. Martin Skinner, director of housing finance at NatWest, said the bank was “thrilled to be able to offer [SLH] a finance package that is closely linked to meeting sustainability targets”.
South Liverpool Homes currently has a G2/V1 rating with the Regulator of Social Housing. The organisation was downgraded to G2 in 2021 as the regulator identified “control weaknesses” in the group’s approach to development, rent-setting and property allocations.
It also noted that probity arrangements “risked inappropriately advancing the interests of third parties”.
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