Natwest housing finance chief: Social housing changes lives – I would know
Behind every discussion about social housing, finance or policy are real people whose lives can be changed by the security of a permanent home, writes Paul Eyre
I always felt secure. I always knew I had a home. But today in the UK there are 176,000 children living in temporary accommodation – the most on record. That’s the starting point for how I think about social housing today.
I lead Natwest’s support of housing associations, residential developers and investors. But before the funding structures, business plans and development pipelines, there’s something much more fundamental: the stability and dignity that come from knowing you have a place to live. For me, that’s what the affordable housing conversation is really about.
I was born in social housing – or council housing, as many people would have called it then – after my parents came to the UK from Ireland with no money at all. What I remember most is not the label attached to it, but the feeling it gave me. I knew I had a home. I could go to school, have my own room, do my homework and grow up without the fear that we might suddenly have to move. That experience stayed with me. It’s why I’ve always seen a safe home as something much bigger than bricks and mortar. It’s security, confidence and the chance to build a life.
People often use terms like council housing, social housing and affordable housing interchangeably. They’re not quite the same thing. Council housing is what many people still picture, and for some that was their first experience of housing at a rent they could afford. Social housing is broader than that. It includes homes provided by housing associations as well as councils, and those organisations have a much wider range of histories and purposes than many people realise. Affordable housing is broader still, but within that, social rent remains especially important because it is usually the cheapest form of rent – and often the one that makes the biggest difference for people in real housing need.
The real people behind the figures
That’s why I always come back to the people behind the funding. In my role, it would be easy to focus only on numbers, spreadsheets and business plans. Those things matter, of course, but they’re not the full story. A little while ago I was in the East End looking at new social rent homes. Standing there, I found myself thinking about the families currently living in temporary accommodation who, in the near future, will walk through the door of one of those homes and think, “Wow, we’re in heaven.”
For me, that’s the point. Behind every discussion about housing supply, finance or policy are real people whose lives can be changed by the security of a permanent home. That’s why earlier this year we announced a new £10bn funding ambition for UK social housing by the end of 2028, taking total support for the sector to more than £35bn since 2018.
The challenge, of course, is that the need is huge and the pressures are real. While the demand for housing exceeds the rate of housebuilding, social rent in particular remains vital for people on waiting lists or living in temporary accommodation.
At the same time, housing associations are dealing with rising costs from inflation, fire safety work, higher home standards and the cost of making homes greener, all while trying to maintain existing homes and build new ones. These are the right things to invest in, but they add cost without increasing income. That is one reason some organisations have had to slow down or pause development, even though the need for more homes is so obvious.
That’s where I think Natwest can play a practical role. I don’t believe finance alone can solve the housing crisis, and I’ve often said that none of what we do is a silver bullet. But where we can help, we should.
We created a Social Rent Loan Fund of £1bn because we could see how few new social rent homes were being delivered and how urgent the need had become. For me, it was a way of doing something practical, while also shining a light on an issue that deserves far more attention. And today, we’ve announced the launch of a new £250m Section 106 Loan Fund, supporting housing associations to acquire affordable homes from housebuilders and helping unlock stalled housing delivery in England.
In the end, I always come back to something very simple. The value of social housing is not abstract. It’s there in the security of a child knowing they have a home, in a family leaving temporary accommodation behind and in the opportunities that stable housing can make possible. “I always felt secure. I always knew I had a home” is a personal reflection, but it is also the clearest way I know to explain why this matters. Behind the funding, behind the policy, behind the structures, there are always people first.
Paul Eyre is head of residential and housing finance at Natwest