Alison Rose

The funding will be used to support the construction of 20,000 homes.

The commitment is a first for the lender, which has rebranded today from Royal Bank of Scotland.

The bank’s chief executive Alison Rose, said: “It has never been more critical to support the delivery of housing in the UK as more and more people have had to stay in their homes for prolonged periods during the pandemic. Many people have homes where they feel safe and comfortable, but there is still a significant number who don’t.”

The £3bn will support the development of new social housing by housing associations and will fund improvements to existing homes, The Times reports. 

Natwest is a supporter of the National Housing Federation’s Homes at the Heart campaign, which asks the government to put social housing at the centre of its economic recovery plan. The campaign is supported by over 60 housing groups, charities and industry bodies, which argue that the pandemic has demonstrated the need for high-quality, affordable homes.

The National Housing Federation has said that every pound spent by the government on building new social homes generated at least £5 in local economies across the UK. It argued that investment in social housing would create jobs and reduce the cost of the government’s housing benefit, which was £22.3 billion last year.