Legal & General has put £100m of pension fund money into the affordable housing business it set up in 2018, with the financial services group’s chief executive describing such investments as “inclusive capitalism at its best”.
The group’s affordable housing division delivers social rent, affordable rent and shared ownership homes. Having delivered the first of these in 2019, it is on target to create 3,000 homes each year by 2023, working alongside 14 housing associations and providers.
Legal & General has put £100m of long-term debt financing into the business, with a further £175m of development finance coming from external investors.
The group said affordable housing offered “diversified, stable returns” to its Pension Risk Transfer business, while the investments also created new jobs, productivity and wage growth.
Nigel Wilson, chief executive of Legal & General, said: “Legal & General’s continued activity in the affordable housing sector demonstrates our unique ability to create real assets which match our long term pension liabilities, recycling the UK’s hard earned savings and pensions to support those most in need in society.
“We have already directly invested over £22bn into new homes, urban regeneration, clean energy and transport infrastructure. Bringing in pension fund capital gives us the scope to do even more. This is inclusive capitalism at its best.”
Simon Century, Legal & General’s head of affordable housing, added: “There is an urgent need to provide stable homes for millions of households on waiting lists. Legal & General is increasingly innovating with how to deploy institutional capital at scale to meet these needs and have a significant long term socio-economic impact.”
Source: www.egi.co
