Stonewater agrees £40m facility with Clydesdale Bank

31 August 2015

Stonewater, one of the UK’s leading social housing providers, has agreed a new £40m facility with Clydesdale Bank which will support the organisation’s plans for further expansion.

Stonewater is one of the UK’s most significant social housing providers, with 30,000 homes under management across England and has one of the UK’s most significant development programmes in place to help meet the rising demand for affordable housing.

Formed by the merger of Jephson and Raglan at the beginning of 2015, Stonewater operates across three divisions in England with 8,400 homes in the North & East, 13,400 in the South and 8,200 in the West.

Stonewater’s expansion plans are underpinned by Clydesdale Bank’s extension of its existing rolling credit facility to £40 million which will help support further growth across key areas of the country. The affordable housing provider’s development programme aims to deliver more than 7,000 new homes over the next 10 years.

John Bruton, Executive Director, Finance at Stonewater said: “I am very pleased to continue and extend the relationship that was established between Jephson and Clydesdale. This facility complements our recent capital market fund raising, giving us flexible, committed funding.”

Brendan Brien, Senior Director with the Specialist and Acquisition Finance team at Clydesdale Bank, said: “Stonewater is already well recognised across the sector for the strength and quality of its portfolio. They have ambitious plans to further increase housing provision across their main areas and we look forward to continuing to support them as they drive their development programme forward.”

This facility follows several others recently agreed by the Bank following its re-entry to the sector and the establishment of a specialist social housing unit led by Elaine Reed.

The Bank remains focused on supporting the growth aspirations of both large and small providers and is working collaboratively with customers to find solutions to funding issues in what are now more challenging times following the recent Budget announcements.