The National Housing Bank (NHB) was launched on 1 April 2026 as a subsidiary of Homes England to increase access to finance and unlock housing delivery at scale. With up to £16 billion available for debt, equity and guarantee products, and an ambition to attract over £50 billion of private capital, the establishment of the NHB is a significant shift in how government supports housing and regeneration. This insight outlines how the NHB operates and the key financial products and interventions available to housing providers, developers and investors.

What is the National Housing Bank?

The National Housing Bank is wholly owned by Homes England and operates as a public financial institution rather than a conventional bank. It deploys government-backed capital to address market failures that are constraining housing delivery, particularly high borrowing costs, limited access to long-term finance and risk aversion from private lenders.

The NHB works alongside Homes England’s grant and land interventions, allowing partners to access packages of support, combining grant funding with debt, equity or guarantees where appropriate. Its primary focus is accelerating the delivery of new homes and supporting regeneration, whilst ensuring value for money and an appropriate return for the public purse.

Debt finance

Debt finance is central to the NHB’s offer. From 1 April 2026, it is providing a range of debt products designed to support schemes at different stages of development and across a wide range of tenures. These are intended to address gaps in the commercial lending market, improve capital efficiency and recycle public funding quickly.

Key debt products include:

• SME Accelerator Loans: Providing site-specific development finance alongside follow-on funding to help small and medium-sized (SME) housebuilders acquire their next site and grow their pipeline. This responds directly to the challenge of trapped equity that often prevents SMEs from operating on multiple sites at once.
• Revolving credit facilities: Delivered alongside commercial lenders, to support multi-site delivery and improve liquidity for growing developers.
• Senior and mezzanine debt: Aimed at mid-sized developers and regeneration schemes, including Build to Rent and later living projects.
• Infrastructure loans: Loans of up to 15 years, supporting upfront investment in roads, utilities and placemaking needed to unlock large sites.
• Low-interest loans for registered providers: Offering below-market borrowing to support investment in new social and affordable homes and improve balance sheet resilience.

Crucially, NHB debt finance can be combined with other Homes England interventions, including Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) grant funding, to create blended funding packages. For example, SAHP grant may be used to subsidise the capital costs of affordable housing, alongside NHB low interest loans or infrastructure finance to improve scheme viability, liquidity and delivery pace.

To find out more about the SAHP programme and the grant agreements, read our previous insight here.

Equity investment

The NHB’s equity interventions focus on attracting institutional investment into housing delivery and regeneration. Rather than funding individual sites, equity is typically deployed on a programme basis, supporting platforms, funds and joint ventures capable of delivering homes at scale.

The NHB’s core equity products include:

• Cornerstone and Early-Stage Investments: Investments into housing funds and collective investment vehicles.
• Private Joint Ventures and Partnerships: Minority stakes in private joint ventures and partnerships with developers, investors and registered providers.
• Public Partnerships: Participation in public-sector partnerships to support strategic regeneration and large-scale delivery.

By taking a minority equity position, the NHB aims to share risk with delivery partners, build market confidence and attract significant amounts of private capital, particularly in areas where investor appetite is currently constrained.

NHB will typically aim to invest at least £50 million into vehicles that expect to deliver more than 3,000 homes over their lifetime. Equity investment can be combined with grants from the SAHP to support registered providers (RPs) in encouraging development at scale within a region. It can also be combined with infrastructure grants to support urban regeneration schemes.

Guarantees

The NHB’s guarantee programme is designed to reduce financing risk and improve access to long-term funding by encouraging more external investment into the sector. Initial guarantees will focus on bonds or loans placed with institutional investors, helping to lower borrowing costs, crowd in private capital and improve access to long-term funding for housing delivery.

Key features include:

• Diversifying funding sources: By improving access to long-term finance, the programme aims to unlock additional capacity among current and future participants and accelerate the delivery of new homes and mixed-use schemes.
• Sustainable investment: A key focus of the programme is to attract institutional investment by de-risking projects and providing the halo effect of government-backed support. This intervention is intended to create a template for long-term sustainable investment and make the housing and regeneration sector more accessible.
• Overcoming structural barriers to investment: By improving cashflow certainty and aligning asset structures more closely with long-dated investor liabilities, the programme aims to help remove market bottlenecks, increase transaction volumes and support balance sheet strength among delivery partners.
• Support policy: Guarantee products will support key government policy objectives by encouraging investment into specific target tenures where market failures are most acute.

Guarantees are expected to play an important role in recapitalising RPs, supporting affordable housing delivery and creating investable structures that appeal to long-dated capital such as pension funds and insurers. As with equity investment and where appropriate, guarantees may be combined with SAHP grants to support RPs in unlocking development locally and delivering affordable homes at scale.

Capsticks’ view

The National Housing Bank marks a significant expansion of government intervention in housing finance and underlines the clear priority of development of new homes. By offering debt, equity and guarantees alongside Homes England’s grant funding, the NHB provides a more flexible and advanced funding toolkit for housing delivery.

For providers and developers, early engagement and a clear understanding of how NHB products can be combined with other interventions will be essential to unlocking their full potential. The NHB’s emphasis on blended finance, low-interest loans and guarantees has the potential to materially improve scheme viability and investor confidence.

However, navigating the growing range of products and eligibility criteria will require careful planning, robust governance and clear delivery strategies. We expect further detail to emerge as the NHB’s programmes bed in, particularly around guarantees and equity structures, and we will continue to provide updates and practical guidance for clients as the framework develops.

How Capsticks can help

Capsticks advises registered providers, local authorities, developers and investors on structuring and negotiating funding arrangements across the housing sector. If you are considering accessing the National Housing Bank finance initiatives outlined above, or looking to combine NHB products with grant funding or joint ventures, please speak to Partner Darren Hooker or Associate Georgia Moon to find out more about how Capsticks can help.