The Housing Finance Corporation has published its third annual Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing (SRS) report for 2022/23, alongside its inaugural group-wide Sustainability Report.

The SRS report, which covers the 30 borrowers in THFC’s bLEND portfolio as of 31st March 2023, reveals the progress bLEND borrowers are making on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria.

bLEND’s overall average rent was 59% of private rent levels during the year, compared to 61% in 2021/22. In addition, 67% of the pool’s existing homes were rated EPC “C” or better, an increase of 4% year on year.

Board diversity has also moved in a positive direction, with a pool average of 45% women and 15% BAME in 2022/23. This is compared against 44% and 13%, respectively, from the previous year.

In addition to publishing its third SRS report, THFC is delighted to launch its inaugural group-wide Sustainability Report. While the SRS Report reflects the ESG progress of its bLEND borrowers, THFC’s Sustainability Report turns the spotlight on itself, reporting on the range of internal ESG work occurring within THFC. This report is organised into the three categories of “ESG” – Environmental, Social and Governance – and is mapped against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that THFC believes it is actively contributing toward.

Piers Williamson, Chief Executive of THFC, said: “The results of our third annual SRS report represent an encouraging direction of travel from our borrowers. We know that they are committed to improving their sustainability performance and we are beginning to see material progress in this area.

“Like our borrowers, THFC is also committed to doing more on sustainability, which is why we have published our first annual group-wide sustainability report. Like the SRS report, we expect to use these annual reports to track our own progress against sustainability targets.”

Find the bLEND SRS report for 2022/23 and THFC’s inaugural group-wide Sustainability Report here.