Adra secures loan deal for ambitious housing projects

Adra, North Wales’ largest housing association has secured a £25 million sustainability linked loan from its existing banking partner NatWest that will be invested in building brand new homes and carrying out energy efficiency improvement works on its current housing stock.

This funding is part of Adra’s £63 million investment in property over the next 12 months and will assist with the commitment of creating 750 new homes by 2025.

Rhys Parry, Adra’s Director of Resources said: “We are delighted to announce such a significant investment in building brand new homes across North Wales and we are fully committed to playing our part in efforts to meet housing needs across the region.

“It’s great to continue to work in partnership with NatWest as they clearly share the same values as Adra and see the tremendous opportunity to work with us to realise our ambitions.

“We already provide a home for over 14,000 people; we employ over 340 staff and we offer a variety of housing and activities to support and improve the lives of our customers. Every penny is reinvested in the business to help provide more quality homes and services for people in need.

“We want to play our part in helping to solve the housing crisis by meeting the demand for more housing – creating and providing high quality, green, safe and affordable homes that people can be proud of.

“We ensure that the investment benefits communities across North Wales by using local contractors for projects and using the local supply chain to provide materials where possible.

“We are also continuing our ongoing investment in our existing housing stock, focusing specifically on improving energy efficiency. The significant projects underway, both in terms of new build and refurbishment projects, will help secure jobs, give the construction industry a much-needed boost and enable people to live and work locally”.

Martin Skinner, Director Housing Finance, NatWest, said: “NatWest is a key supporter of the housing association sector in Wales and the wider UK with more than £14bn leant to over 250 housing associations. Crucially, we are working closely with housing associations to help them define their sustainability strategies and our specialist team in this sector has supported many of them with the structuring of their Environmental Social Governance (ESG) frameworks. We have also been a driver of the Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing, which provides a voluntary reporting framework for housing providers to report on their ESG  performance consistently and with transparency.

“We are therefore proud to be working with Adra, as North Wales’ largest housing association, to help the organisation achieve its ambitions. Its purpose of putting its tenants at the forefront of its work aligns closely with our own values to help people, businesses and communities thrive and we are looking forward to providing them with further support in the future.”