Moody’s has changed the outlook for bLEND Funding plc (bLEND), a fully-owned subsidiary of The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC), to stable from negative and affirmed the rating at A2.

This rating action follows Moody’s rating action taken on the Government of the United Kingdom (UK, Aa3 Stable)’s sovereign bond rating on 20 October 2023. The outlook on the UK’s rating was changed to stable from negative and the ratings were affirmed.

The change in outlook reflects Moody’s view that the credit quality of the underlying participants of the pool will improve for the same reasons as highlighted above for the wider housing association sector.

The affirmation reflects underlying strengths of the UK housing association sector, the presence of a liquidity reserve which provides a structural enhancement to the pool and the strong management of the pool programme by The Housing Finance Corporation.

The updated Moody’s credit opinion can be downloaded here.

Notes to Editors

About THFC: The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC) is the UK’s leading affordable housing aggregator, with over £8bn of lending to around 160 housing associations in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. THFC was set up in 1987 in partnership with the National Housing Federation and what was the Housing Corporation. It now also operates through its subsidiary company, bLEND, which was established in 2018. As a not-for-profit, the group’s surpluses are retained and reinvested to ensure THFC can continue to provide competitively priced funding for HAs long into the future. THFC’s track record of innovation includes some of the earliest green finance products for retrofit and sustainable developments.

For further information contact:

Piers Williamson, Chief Executive – Piers.Williamson@thfcorp.com

Will Stevenson, Group Treasurer – Will.Stevenson@thfcorp.com

Danielle Hughes, ESG Strategy and Communications Manager – Danielle.Hughes@thfcorp.com