Octopus Investments has today announced that NewArch, its Registered Provider of Social Housing, has adopted the Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing (the Standard). Facilitated by leading impact advisory firm, The Good Economy, Octopus now joins 100 housing associations and funders as an adopter of the ESG standard for social housing.
As part of this commitment, NewArch will now report against the Standard on an annual basis for as long as it remains an Adopter, it will provide feedback on the Standard as a way of supporting its further development and it will encourage others to adopt the Standard.
As announced in May 2022, New Arch was acquired by Octopus as part of its Affordable Housing strategy, to fund new homes built to high quality and sustainability standards. New Arch operates a scalable ‘direct let’ model – rather than lease-based – to ensure a fair sharing of risk with its approved Housing Association partners, who will manage the properties on Octopus’ behalf. NewArch ensures the strategy is subject to appropriate regulatory oversight and enables the company to draw on grant funding, where appropriate, to support the delivery of new homes.
“We have adopted the Sustainability Reporting Standards as we want to be transparent with our partners and investors with what we are achieving in this sector. The Good Economy has created a clear and informative framework that allows us to demonstrate the difference we are making through our affordable housing strategy, which has ESG considerations at its core. As a Registered Provider, we have a responsibility to provide quality, affordable and well-run homes for those who need them, and the framework helps us work towards this goal and to communicate this in a consistent way to the industry,” said Jack Burnham, Head of Affordable Housing at Octopus Real Estate.
