Underwriting Specialist

National Housing Bank launches with £100m investment from Aviva. March 31, 2026 Homes England and Aviva have committed £100m to the delivery of new homes through the newly launched National Housing Bank. The National Housing Bank is a government public finance institution, created to accelerate the delivery of new homes and communities, as well as the generation of towns and cities across England. It will work with housebuilders, developers, investors and registered providers to deploy up to £16bn of debt, equity and guarantees. The National Housing Bank will support the delivery of 500,000 homes, regeneration and mixed-use schemes, with aims to unlock more than £53bn of private investment over the next decade. The launch is supported by Homes England's Investment Prospectus, a statement covering how it will deliver homes and regeneration. Homes England and Aviva have invested £100m in the programme and will work with Place Capital Group to deliver 300 homes, with scope to increase this to 3,300 as funding grows. The homes will be high-quality, low-energy rental homes, developed on underused brownfield sites in regional UK towns and cities and targeting lower- to middle-income working families. The National Housing Bank is a subsidiary of Homes England, and will provide flexible, government-backed finance across funds, platforms and partnerships. Simon Century, chief executive of the National Housing Bank, said: "This partnership with Aviva is exactly the kind of investment that the National Housing Bank was created for. Bringing together government-backed finance and institutional capital from a Sterling 20 investor, it supports the creation of a new housing delivery platform, working with talented delivery partners with the ambition to deliver at scale. It will unlock brownfield land and deliver high-quality, affordable family homes for rent across the UK, starting in Liverpool and Manchester. "We look forward to the establishment of more platforms like this powered by the National Housing Bank, to bring investment from institutional investors and the private sector into England's housing market." David Epstein, managing director at Aviva Capital Partners, said: "This investment will provide working families with high-quality, aspirational rental homes with stable tenancies, supporting urban neighbourhoods across the country to get ready for the future. "The partnership is another way Aviva is investing in the UK, working together with Homes England to improve local economies and communities in cities across the country."

Government's £16bn National Housing Bank opens for business. Homes England has officially launched the National Housing Bank (NHB) alongside a new investment plan, which will look to deploy £16bn of debt, equity and guarantees to deliver 500,000 new homes. The NHB launch event was held today (31 March) in Westminster, alongside the publication of a new investment prospectus, which aims to attract approximately £53bn of private capital. The prospectus builds on Homes England's recently published strategic plan and investment roadmap, and sets out the NHB's investment principles, themes and criteria for partners as it bids to unlock new housing and mixed-use schemes at scale across the country. It also sets out the bank's products and interventions, including a range of debt financing products such as SME accelerator loans, equity investments including via private joint ventures and partnerships, as well as new guarantee products, such as sustainable investments. NHB chair Peter Vernon said the bank will support a range of tenures including affordable and build-to-rent, for small, large and "complex" sites, while developing new financial products to ensure the bank's longevity. This includes £2.5bn low-interest loans for social and affordable housing providers. "The bank will be permanently capitalised, therefore it's able to plan long term," he added. "It's able to invest long term. It's also available to recycle its capital. "The bank will have flexibility to co-develop new financial products with partners to meet what are inevitably going to be the changing challenges of the sector and the bank will have significantly increased delegated authority to approve transactions, which basically means quick decisions." Homes England has also announced the NHB's first partnership, a £100m tie-up with Aviva to support the delivery of an initial 300-home portfolio across Liverpool and Manchester. Vernon also said the bank will attempt to de-risk the "early stages of masterplanning, land assembly [and] infrastructure investment" in a bid to bring forward complex sites more quickly, while supporting SME developers to "build a pipeline and therefore expand their business". NHB chief executive Simon Century said: "Graftonbc is prioritising schemes that are well advanced, often close to delivery, but where progress has stalled because the financing isn't quite working the way it needs to. "What we're doing is helping to make those deals stack again. It might mean sharing risk [...] bringing in additional capital alongside existing investors, or it might mean structuring something differently so the projects, which would otherwise sit on the shelf, can actually move forward." Speaking to Property Week at the event, Homes England chair Pat Ritchie said it is "already in partnership with a range of other" developers and investors, including Muse, Barratt Redrow and Lloyds. "That kind of track record of working with partners is something that we'll build on within the bank," she added.

Aviva to launch onshore Intelligentinsurer-based surplus lines business. Aviva has revealed plans to establish an onshore surplus lines business based in New York City, set to begin trading in the second quarter of 2026. If you don't have a login or your access has expired, you will need to purchase a subscription to gain access to this article, including all its online content. To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup. NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved. For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that Intelligentinsurer can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at [email protected] More on this story. 27 March 2026 Rising nat cat, fire and cooling risks are driving insurance demand. 27 March 2026 Liberty Brokers' take is now at 47 employees over the past nine months. 27 March 2026 Destructive wind footprint mirrors 2009's Klaus, which delivered €1,6bn hit. Editor's picks. 27 March 2026 26 March 2026 25 March 2026 24 March 2026