Sustainability is fundamental to our social purpose at Bromford. It is integral to our relationships with our customers and communities, the decisions we take on new and existing homes, and the way we are funded. It is also fundamental to our core purpose of providing affordable, safe, and secure homes for those who cannot access the private housing market, and to helping customers feel empowered and able to thrive. That’s why sustainability has been a priority for us for some time now – shaping the way we operate to better protect the environment and the communities around us, while ensuring that what we do today doesn’t compromise where we want to get to tomorrow.

Sustainable Finance Framework

Our Sustainable Finance Framework aligns our future financing to strategic commitments, underpinned throughout by the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Launched in 2021, it was the first in the sector to be accredited by S&P Global Ratings. It incorporates funding options including UK listed bonds, UK and US private placements, bank facilities (revolving and term debt). The framework is aligned to the International Capital Markets Association principles for: green bonds, social bonds and sustainability bond guidelines. It also satisfies Loan Market Association principles for green loans and social loans.

Sustainability linked loans (SLL)

Our SLLs link our finance with our purpose. The revolving credit facilities see margins and fees on the loans brought down if we successfully meet pre-agreed Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) targets. These targets include a range of metrics including; the number of new social homes we rent, our customer advocacy score, our carbon emissions, colleague sick days, supporting customers into employment, reducing our repairs back log and reducing our gender pay gap. These targets encourage us to deliver on what we say we will. The savings we do generate are re-invested into projects which support and empower our communities.

Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing (SRS)

The SRS was launched in November 2020 as a valuable voluntary reporting framework designed to help housing providers report on their ESG performance in a transparent, consistent and comparable manner. The latest version of the SRS, version 2.0 comes into effect from October 2024. We publish our SRS performance annually to see how we compare to our peers. We believe our approach to sustainability is as unique as the people and communities we serve, so we will always look to go beyond the sector standard. The SRS includes 12 themes and 48 criteria, across all areas of Environmental, Social and Governance, and has been adopted by over 100 housing providers, banks and investors. The standard has been designed to align with both the ICMA and LMA Social and Sustainability Bond Principles and can help housing associations meet the reporting standards required by the ICMA and LMA. These metrics help us to demonstrate how we interact with people, places and the planet.​

Building a sustainable future: 

Read our sustainability impact reports below: