Despite the well-known challenges currently facing housing associations and the broader housing sector, there was an upbeat atmosphere & can-do attitude in Liverpool. The enthusiasm from financial leaders in the sector was, in part, supported by the ongoing focus on housing delivery and remediation from Westminster.

David shares his key takeaways and reflections from the event below:

Driving housing delivery and closing the viability gap

As mentioned, the sector has been met with a number of difficulties in recent years. From the loss of social homes and growing social housing waiting lists, to the conflict of building homes or using that funding to retrofit or remediate existing properties.

There was an interesting discussion on maintaining the sector’s viability. Housing associations are adjusting to the current interest rate environment, with a large focus on closing the ‘viability gap’ to enable the delivery of new homes to support the government’s 1.5 million homes target.

Strengthening market appetite

Despite the financial and operational headwinds, liquidity and appetite for the UK social housing sector remains incredibly strong across the bank and bond markets. Total debt capacity is, of course, impacted by associations' willingness to increase debt, while maintaining financial health, and their ability to meet liabilities and higher interest costs.

The importance of sustainability funding

Sustainability is still a core focus, including the retrofit of existing homes. However, to achieve this, housing providers need funding from external organisations to make homes more energy efficient.

The panel discussion on the sector’s chance to ‘crack’ retrofit funding was especially relevant with the recent announcement of successful bids and allocations of “Warm Homes: Social Housing Funding Wave 3”. Following the announcement, housing associations are approaching banks for low-cost funding from their retrofit funds that are underpinned by guarantees from the National Wealth Fund.

This is truly an exciting time for social housing providers to tap into the growing demand for ESG finance and unlock new investments into their portfolio.

Outside the Conference arena, the weather was great and there was warmth in the spring sunshine, helping to underpin the mood of delegates as they headed home after a hectic, but fun, 48 hours.