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Scottish housing association secures £50m loan
Scottish housing association Kingdom Group has agreed £50m in funding to help it develop around 500 new homes across the central belt in Scotland.
The financing has been provided by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Bank of Scotland (BoS), which is part of the Lloyds Banking Group.
Kingdom will build the homes across Fife, Perth & Kinross, Clackmannanshire, and Falkirk.
The social landlord said it has also gained more financial flexibility to invest in its existing stock through a planned maintenance programme, after renegotiating lending agreements with the banks.
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Leigh Grubb, group director of corporate services at Kingdom, said: “We received several competitive offers from funders and decided to split the award equally between two of our existing lenders, RBS and Lloyds, with whom we continue to have strong relationships and who have consistently supported the sector in Scotland.
“During the current housing emergency, our desire to keep developing new homes remains strong, even though there has been some slowdown in our programme due to government funding restrictions.”
Mr Grubb was recently appointed to the newly created role at the Fife-based landlord, after joining Kingdom in November 2023 as executive director of finance.
Bruce Davidson, relationship director at RBS, said the financing showed that the bank understood “the importance in addressing the supply of homes across the country which are fit for the future”.
Melanie Russell, relationship director for social housing at BoS, added: “This funding lays the groundwork for the sustainable growth of their business and more financially resilient communities.”
Kingdom also recently appointed Dan Blake as its new director of communities. The role was created after a structural evaluation at the Kingdom Group, which it hopes will position the organisation to better meet the needs of its customers.
In July, Tricia Hill, development director at Kingdom, spoke to Inside Housing about the “unexpected nature” of the Scottish government’s cut to its housebuilding programme and how the housing association was responding.
