Building a green recovery

One of our core priorities at Lloyds Banking Group is to enable greater access to high-quality homes across the UK. 

David Cleary
Managing Director, Head of Housing
23 March 2021
3 min read


The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted just how vital access to appropriate housing is, but we must also make sure that homes – new and old – support the UK’s sustainability targets and build towards a greener future.

Last month we announced our new Group strategy, which sets out a clear roadmap that will enable us to:

  • Support businesses to recover, adapt and grow
  • Help rebuild households’ financial health and wellbeing
  • Expand availability of affordable and quality homes
  • Accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy

Our ambition includes supporting the building of sustainable, affordable and high quality housing while transitioning to a low carbon economy. In doing so, we’ll also support improved financial health and wellbeing for households across the UK, help businesses in the construction industry to recover and adapt post the pandemic.

As the UK recovers from the health and economic effects of Covid-19, we’re working towards ensuring that everyone can access stable, affordable and safe homes in places they want to live. With this in mind, as well as new homes, we are also committed to broadening access to home ownership and exploring opportunities to increase our support to the UK private rental and social housing sectors.
 

In 2021, we will provide

£10 billion

of lending to help people to buy their first home in 2021

 

In 2021, we will:

  • Provide £10 billion of lending to help people to buy their first home in 2021
  • Provide at least £1.5 billion of new funding , including £500 million that is ESG-linked, in support of the social housing sector
  • Support the creation of national sustainability standards for housebuilding finance and assess the energy retrofit requirements of over 200,000 homes in the social housing sector
     

Building sustainable housing

This year we are joining the Executive Committee of NextGeneration, to further develop the national sustainability standards for new-build housing finance to help ensure that new homes being built today are  sustainable and support our path to net zero carbon.  

We’ll also be working alongside other industry stakeholders, such as JLL, to create a framework that works for builders across the industry, including SMEs and housing associations.

To help support this move towards sustainable building, our customers have access to our Green Building Tool – a digital insights calculator that helps to identify, evaluate and understand the estimated outcomes of potential investments to make properties more sustainable and energy efficient.

The calculator offers tailored recommendations of up to 49 cost-saving measures that could be taken to improve the green credentials of a property, based on the information provided about the building in question, whilst drawing on the information from expert systems.

These measures can be filtered by:

  • potential impact on the EPC rating
  • investment required
  • estimated payback period
  • annual savings.

This helps our customers to make the best investment while still reducing their carbon footprint. Find out more about the Green Building Tool here. 
 

We’ve committed to deliver at least 

£1.5 billion

of funding in 2021


Looking beyond building

When businesses talk about housing, there tends to be a focus on those buying a property - but we want to ensure the same high quality, sustainable options are available for those renting or living in social housing too.

This year, over 200,000 social housing buildings are being assessed by our Green Buildings Tool to help the sector continue on its decarbonisation journey. We’ve also adopted the Social Housing Sustainability Reporting Standards Framework and closed our first Sustainability Linked Loan.

We’ve also committed to deliver at least £1.5bn of funding in 2021, including £500m that is ESG linked. We’ve made a strong start, but there is much to be done, including exploring our support of the private rental sector.

Housing the UK

Lloyds Banking Group is the largest bank to the UK housing sector, and we understand that we have a significant responsibility in helping to house the nation. Access to a secure, high quality, sustainable homes is core to societal wellbeing and in order to make this a reality, we’re providing long standing support for this strategically important sector so that together we can meet the housing and welfare needs of the UK.

We’re excited by the future that lies ahead in sustainable housing delivery and is focused on supporting new homes for sale or rent, as well as the retrofit of existing properties that will be key as we accelerate the de-carbonisation journey.

Related content

 

Expanding the availability of affordable and quality homes

As we recover from the pandemic, we aspire to a UK in which all people have access to stable, affordable and safe homes in places they want to live. We are committed to broadening access to home ownership and exploring opportunities to increase our support to the rental sector.

Find out more