National Wealth Fund and NatWest to provide £500m in retrofit funding

The loans are available through NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank on an unsecured basis and for terms of up to 15 years.

Miatta Fahnbulleh, the minister for energy consumers, said: “As we continue at pace with the roll-out of our Warm Homes Plan, this new agreement is another significant boost for delivering warmer homes and lower bills for social tenants.

“This follows our recent allocation of £1.8bn to local authorities and social housing providers across England to deliver upgrades like insulation, solar panels and heat pumps, helping people save energy and money off their bills.”

The NWF said this brought its total support for social housing retrofit to £1.3bn since October.

It previously announced guarantees of £350m for Barclays UK Corporate Bank, £400m for Lloyds Banking Group and £150m for The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC).

The facility with THFC launched in February with an initial £150m investment from Rothesay, the largest pension insurance specialist in the UK.

Barclays and Lloyds will each deliver £500m of lending to support short, mid and long-duration loans.

John Flint, chief executive of the NWF, said: “Everyone should be able to live in a warm home with affordable energy bills. However, the scale of the retrofit challenge facing the social housing sector is clear, and significant investment is needed now to ensure that residents across the UK have homes fit for the future.

“The NWF has an important role to play in mobilising the private finance that will underpin this transformation.”

Paul Thwaite, chief executive of NatWest, added: “Working with the NWF on deploying £500m of new loans means we can help retrofit more social homes across the UK at pace – supporting those who need it most.”