This will be the sixth tranche of EIB funding secured by THFC over the past 11 years. The facility is more than three times greater than the largest loan THFC has previously secured from the bank, of £100 million in November 2008.

A statement released by the corporation today said the money would be on-lent to affordable housing projects across the UK, with a ‘significant portion’ going directly to associations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The £100 million facility agreed by the two lenders last November was on-lent to eight associations at a margin of less than 0.1 per cent over Libor. At that time, the commercial banks willing to lend long-term to housing associations were closer to 2 per cent.

The EIB has lent directly to large-scale social housing regeneration projects run by landlords such as Gentoo and Wakefield District Housing, but it uses THFC as an intermediary to fund smaller-scale developments