Social housing sector come to together with lenders and investors
Tuesday 10th of November 2020
The Social housing sector has come to together with lenders and investors to create a common sustainability reporting standard.
Tpas are an 'endorser' of the Sustainability Reporting Standard. This means we commit to promoting the adoption and implementation of the Standard.
A total of 70 banks, investors and housing providers have become early adopters of an industry-led sustainability reporting standard designed to unlock institutional investment to help tackle the UK’s deepening housing crisis.
The working group was set up in 2019 in response to concerns ESG investment was being inhibited by the absence of a common reporting standard. As with many other sectors across the economy, there has been a multitude of ESG reporting frameworks, resulting in reporting that lacked transparency, was prone to inconsistency and was incomparable.
The aim of the Standard is to provide a voluntary reporting framework for housing providers to report on their ESG performance in a transparent, consistent and comparable way. This will make it easier for lenders and investors to assess the ESG performance of housing providers, identify ESG risks and opportunities to create positive social and environmental outcomes.
So far, more than 70 organisations (39 housing associations and 31 lenders and investors) have committed to become early adopters of the Standard. Participating housing associations – including Sovereign, Optivo, Clarion and Peabody – will report against the standard on an annual basis. Meanwhile lenders and investors, including Lloyds Bank, LGIM Real Assets, M&G and NatWest, have agreed to use the standard in their investment and credit policies, processes and/or product design.
The Standard covers 48 criteria across ESG considerations such as affordability, fire safety and net zero carbon emissions, which are unveiled in a final report of the working group today. The report follows an earlier draft of the criteria, published in May as part of a sector-wide consultation. The consultation received feedback from more than 400 individuals, including representatives from housing associations, investors, trade bodies, financial experts and tenants’ groups.
Read Michael Hill's blog about the sustainability reporting standard means for engagement.