Avon Pension Fund announces £50 million affordable housing investment

Avon Pension Fund, the £6 billion local government pension scheme serving Bristol, Bath, and surrounding areas, announces a new £50 million investment in affordable housing.

The investment, made through the Octopus Affordable Housing Fund (OAHF), will fund approximately 250 new homes for up to 1,000 people. Critically, at least 20% of the new homes will be built in the Avon region (Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire).

Fuel poverty continues to disproportionately affect affordable housing tenants. Embedding carbon efficiency with very low energy bills is a key objective of the investment. Enabling more energy-efficient homes will also help Avon Pension Fund (the Fund) to achieve net zero emissions by 2045.

The investment forms part of the Fund’s £175 million local impact portfolio. And this commitment to affordable housing comes off the back of a £50 million allocation to local renewable infrastructure made last year in collaboration with five other Local Government Pension Schemes.

Councillor Shaun Stephenson-McGall, Vice Chair Avon Pension Fund Committee, said: “We are delighted to be investing in affordable housing and delivering meaningful societal change where it is so desperately needed. We’ve made significant progress in a very short space of time, making this commitment just months after deploying £50 million capital into local renewable energy.

“Our investment will help raise the local supply of affordable housing, for those that need it most including middle-income families and key workers, while also delivering steady inflation-linked rental income, with capital growth, enabling the Fund to meet future pension promises.”

Jack Burnham, Head of Affordable Housing at Octopus said: “We’re delighted to be working with Avon Pension Fund, not just to provide affordable homes across the UK, but to also use a portion of their investment to help Avon deliver much needed affordable homes in their own area. It’s great to see how our Affordable Housing Fund’s innovative place-based co-investment offer has provided Avon with a solution to deliver local impact.”