Funding team of the year

Unity Trust Bank is driving climate action in the housing sector through its pioneering Retrofit Transition Initiative (RTI) – a dedicated £50m fund supporting housing associations to decarbonise their homes. Launched in 2024, RTI offers low-cost, accessible finance for retrofit with flexible, borrower-led spending across insulation, heat pumps, solar panels and more. The fund will provide up to £3m per customer to support investment in a range of retrofitting activities, and £37.4m is already in live discussion with borrowers.

Unity’s long-standing support for social housing spans five decades, offering support through transactional banking, lending and deposits, and sourcing collaborative solutions for borrowers’ goals to decarbonise, improve their property portfolios and enhance the safety, health and warmth of their tenants’ homes. In 2024 alone, the bank supported retrofits of 931 homes.

But Unity’s climate leadership goes beyond lending. As the first bank to back HACT’s Retrofit Credits programme, Unity integrates climate risk into its lending decisions, excludes funding for high-carbon or high-polluting industries, and has operated as a carbon-neutral organisation since 2019. 

The judges said:

“This submission shows a clear commitment to achieving sustainable goals through action, with great evidence of impact. We particularly liked the impact-driven approach and demonstration of how this leads to quality homes”