Infrastructure

Investing to ensure affordable housing is safer and more energy-efficient

Macquarie Asset Management Private Credit engaged with a housing association in London that required major works to upgrade the safety and energy efficiency of its homes to meet increasingly stringent standards.

Swipe for more
Sector Infrastructure
Sub-sector Real estate, social and affordable housing
Location United Kingdom

Opportunity

On behalf of its third-party investors, Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) Private Credit is a lender to a community-focused housing association in London. The association has more than 5,000 homes across nine boroughs, with a mission that everybody in London can have a safe and affordable place to call home.

To be compliant with the UK government’s net zero target by 2050, the association had forecast expenditure to ensure its properties achieve an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of C or better by the end of 2030. In addition, UK government regulation for health and safety standards in housing association properties has been increasing under consumer regulatory standards.1

MAM Private Credit engaged with the association over the work required to both improve its EPC ratings and meet the standards set for fire safety.  To achieve both, the older buildings in its portfolio needed significant investment above what was previously forecast, so the association developed a 10-year building improvement plan to raise housing standards for its residents.


Approach

MAM Private Credit is supportive of the association’s 10-year plan and wanted to ensure the plan’s success for the association and its tenants, while also being appropriate for its third-party investors.

To provide the association the financial flexibility it needed to undertake the plan, adjustments to its debt covenants were required.

Before agreeing to these adjustments, MAM Private Credit assessed the association’s proposed plan and the frameworks in place to ensure its successful delivery. This review highlighted opportunities to strengthen the association’s operational governance and the controls around the delivery of the 10-year improvement plan.

Outcome

In February 2023, MAM Private Credit approved an amendment waiver to provide the association with flexibility under its debt covenants to carry out the plan.

As part of the amendment, MAM Private Credit negotiated enhanced monitoring conditions to track the association’s operational performance and progress against the plan.

Improving the association’s housing to meet increasing energy efficiency and fire safety standards will create better quality properties for its tenants. Successfully executed, the plan will both improve housing standards and increase the long-term value of the association’s properties, while maintaining MAM Private Credit’s fiduciary responsibilities to its clients.

10-year

social housing property improvement plan

£85 million

investment over the next ten years

We are pleased to support the association’s plan to invest in its properties to improve safety and energy efficiency to meet current standards and provide higher quality living environments for its tenants.”

Vanessa Clarke
Managing Director, Private Credit
Macquarie Asset Management 

  1. Regulatory standards: Economic and consumer standards that registered providers of social housing must comply with, Regulator of Social Housing, 23 March 2023, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/regulatory-standards.

Macquarie Asset Management FY23 Sustainability Report

At Macquarie Asset Management, we view sustainability as part of our fiduciary duty to protect and grow our clients’ assets. This focus also helps us generate positive outcomes for our investee companies and the communities they serve. Our latest Sustainability Report outlines the progress we have made over the past financial year.