160 years after it was established, Peabody is one of the oldest and largest not-for-profit housing associations in the UK. Following a merger with Catalyst in April 2022, the Peabody Group is responsible for over 104,000 homes and 220,000 customers across London and the Home Counties. Peabody has 20,000 care and support customers.

Building a network

Following discussions with institutional investors in 2019, Peabody was at the forefront of building the UK social housing sector standard approach to ESG reporting. The consultative process involved investors, lenders, fund managers and housing associations large and small.

The Sustainability Reporting Standard (SRS) which emerged from consultation has produced a credible, consistent, and comparable set of ESG criteria for associations to report against. This has supported us in telling our story to investors and the wider community and helped to scale up our positive impact and provide a framework for continuous improvement across the group. 

Access to finance

We issued our debut Sustainable Bond earlier this year, securing £350m for investment in new affordable homes delivered to a minimum EPC B. The appetite for the bond reflects the strength and depth of Peabody’s ESG proposition. In addition, we have several sustainability-linked loans which provide interest cost savings tied to us achieving our environmental, social and governance goals.

Shared values

For Peabody, the SRS metrics closely align with our objectives across all three ESG dimensions. It is an important standard which increases opportunities to work with partners and investors who share our values and are passionate about alleviating poverty, investing in communities, and providing sustainable and efficient homes for the future.