Sovereign secures £50m from Barclays to build 25,000 homes

Sovereign Network Group has secured backing from Barclays UK Corporate Bank for its plans to build 25,000 new homes over the next 10 years. The £50m deal marks the bank’s largest unsecured short-term trade loan facility provided to a housing association to date. Most recently, Barclays has combined its social housing and real estate teams to focus on opportunities to increase lending and ensure more tailored support to clients within a social housing market. This deal also follows the new Labour government announced the reintroduction of housing targets, with the aim of building 1.5m affordable new homes during the next parliament. Jason Constable, head of real estate at Barclays UK Corporate Bank, said: “This bespoke short-term trade loan facility is another example of our renewed focus on supporting and lending to more businesses across the UK. “The housing sector is a critical element of the UK economy, and we remain focused on how we can support the delivery of increased levels of new housing stock in the UK as well as supporting the retrofit agenda for our clients’ legacy estates.” Anup Dholakia, director of treasury at Sovereign Network Group, said: “Delivering homes to address the housing crisis is a challenge but through innovative funding approaches with the private sector, like this loan, alongside new commitment from government, there is the opportunity for real progress to give people and our economy the best foundations to grow.” Image © Scully/imageBROKER/Shutterstock