Major bank pledges to lend £50m to Prince William’s homelessness charity
Lloyds Banking Group has committed to lending an initial £50m to Prince William’s homelessness project.
The bank will work with charity Homewards to help small and medium-sized organisations deliver more homes across the six locations where the project is in operation.
These include Aberdeen, Sheffield, Lambeth, Newport, Northern Ireland, and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
The bank will also continue to deliver support to housing in Liverpool and become a ‘Homewards Activator’ – a business that provides funding, skills and expertise.
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Organisations can use the financing to “build, develop or refurbish homes, some of which will be for people with additional needs and support”, Lloyds said.
Lloyds and Homewards said they want to show how barriers to accessing finance can be overcome.
“The offer will unlock more homes for models such as Housing First, which provides wrap-around support and accommodation for those most in need,” the organisations said.
Through the partnership, Lloyds said not-for-profit organisations and financial institutions will be brought together to create “a clear pathway to provide financial support”.
New lending will be combined with expertise across the six locations to make the organisations “investment ready”.
Prince William founded Homewards as part of the Royal Foundation charity in June 2023, with the aim of making homelessness “rare, brief and unrepeated”.
The five-year project will support organisations such as Bournemouth Churches Housing Association, which manages nearly 1,500 houses, including supported housing.
Lloyds’ support has enabled it to help people facing issues such as homelessness, human trafficking and slavery, domestic abuse and mental health challenges.
Charlie Nunn, group chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, said: “In partnership with Homewards, we want to increase provision of homes for those most in need – working with small, specialist housing providers and charities in communities across the UK.
“They have a deep understanding of vulnerabilities and needs in their neighbourhoods, and increasing finance for them to build and develop more homes will enable countless people and families to thrive.”
Pim Gregory, executive director of homelessness at the Royal Foundation, added: “We are thrilled that Lloyds Banking Group will become a Homewards Activator, delivering new funding and investment readiness support to organisations in our Homewards locations to increase the supply of housing.”
Matt Downie, chief executive of homelessness charity Crisis, which is a sector partner of Homewards, said: “With homelessness rising rapidly across Britain, now more than ever we need to see all sectors of society pulling together to find solutions.”
The Prince of Wales visited Sheffield last year, where landlords had pledged properties under the scheme.
In July 2024, he met with homelessness experts and advocates in south London to discuss the project’s progress.
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