NatWest Group Facilitates Plus Dane Housing’s Growth Ambitions with £70 Million Funding

NatWest Group Facilitates Plus Dane Housing’s Growth Ambitions with £70 Million Funding

(IN BRIEF) Plus Dane Housing, a social housing provider with over 13,500 homes across Merseyside and Cheshire, has embarked on a growth program to address social inequality and support vulnerable tenants, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Seeking long-term financing to fulfill its corporate plan, Plus Dane secured a £70 million facility from NatWest Group to fund its growth ambitions. This funding enables Plus Dane to invest £153.8 million in development over five years, delivering 1,415 new homes and actively engaging in a residential build program. Plus Dane’s commitment to sustainability is evident through its leadership in social housing retrofitting and investment in energy efficiency works, demonstrating its dedication to improving the lives of its tenants and communities.

(PRESS RELEASE) LONDON, 2-May-2024 — /EuropaWire/ — Plus Dane Housing owns and manages over 13,500 social housing homes across Merseyside and Cheshire. The business has a strong social purpose since its formation following the merger of Plus Housing and Dane Housing in 2008. The business now employs more than 600 people, providing affordable housing to more than 30,000 customers, supporting its ambition to tackle social inequality by enabling individuals and communities to thrive.

Having emerged from the disruption caused by the Covid pandemic, Plus Dane recognised the increasing vulnerability of many of its tenants and residents caused by ageing, health inequality, pressures on household incomes and ever greater demand being placed on public services. Its 2021-2024 corporate plan set out to help address some of these trends, through the provision of good quality homes, support services for those most in need and building resilient communities.

Central to delivering the corporate plan was a requirement to secure long-term fixed rate debt to provide certainty of cost for the funding of the business’s growth programme. Plus Dane approached NatWest Group in 2021 to help secure the long-term financing required to deliver its growth ambitions. A £70 million facility was agreed.

Enabling development
The 2021-2024 corporate plan included net expenditure on development of £153.8 million over the first five years, which allows for the delivery of 1,415 new homes. This development pipeline has seen Plus Dane actively engaging in a new residential build programme over the past few years. It completed 166 new builds in the financial year ended March 2024 (compared to 148 in 2022), with a further 264 new homes under development and set for completion by March 2025.

Considered a social housing retrofit leader, Plus Dane also secured the top rating from the Government following completion of the retrofit maturity assessment survey. The survey is used by the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero to help shape future retrofit funding.

Plus Dane is continuing to re-invest in its home to improve the lives of tenants through energy efficiency works, including cavity wall, underfloor and loft insulation as well as the installation of triple glazed windows, low energy lighting and solar panels. In August 2023, Plus Dane matched a £4 million funding award from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, to invest £8 million to improve the energy performance rating of 400 homes in Liverpool to at least an EPC band C rating.

Media Contact:

Lucy Chislett
Media Relations Manager
07974864900
lucy.chislett@natwest.com

SOURCE: NatWest