Legal & General to invest over £2 billion of pension funds into affordable homes

Legal & General Retirement Institutional (“LGRI”) has announced its plans to invest a further £2bn of retirement funds into affordable housing over the next five years, helping to create more than 10,000 new homes nationwide.

The investment, through Legal & General’s wholly owned subsidiary, Legal & General Affordable Homes (“LGAH”), will help to tackle the shortage of affordable housing that currently exists. The funding will be used to support further growing demand for homes both for social and affordable rent as well as providing a subsidised route to ownership through shared ownership.

A Legal & General’s report, published in June 2020, found that pension money could be invested into socially useful assets, including housing, creating a virtuous circle whereby pension funds drive demonstrable benefits that can help younger generations.

Andrew Kail, chief executive officer, Legal & General Retirement Institutional (LGRI), said: “The UK has a huge shortage of affordable homes. This announcement demonstrates how Legal & General Retirement Institutional will help to address some of this problem by putting inclusive capitalism at the centre of its investment focus.

“Legal & General is committed to building a better society for all by investing in useful and sustainable assets that will benefit both today’s society and future generations, whilst investing hard earned pension savings and securing the pensions of thousands of scheme members.”

Ben Denton, chief executive, Legal & General Affordable Homes, commented: “This is a great example of how Legal & General is making a significant difference to people’s lives and their communities by building new affordable homes and providing housing for those most in need.

“We are also working to maximise the number of low carbon homes we build and we have committed that all new affordable homes we develop will be Net Zero Carbon by 2030.

“There is still a massive need to deliver more affordable housing to help the 1.2m households on the social housing register.”