JESSICA Funding Overview
Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas [JESSICA] is a European initiative designed to promote sustainable investment, growth and jobs in urban areas across Europe.
In London, the JESSICA London Green Fund was established to make investments consistent with the London Plan, allocating £12million to finance investments in energy efficient retrofit of existing social housing under the Greener Social Housing UDF.
THFC were given the ability to on-lend these funds to finance eligible urban projects which form part of an integrated plan for sustainable urban development. THFC provided loans through the JESSICA initiative to a select group of housing associations [HAs] which displayed a particular strength in improving the energy efficiency of their housing stock.
The HAs financed were: Gallions Housing Association, Origin Housing and A2Dominion. These HAs have been provided with loans of £4million each from the fund to finance a variety of retrofit projects.
Alongside the funds delivered through the JESSICA Initiative, THFC has also on-lent from EIB loan facilities. The rationale being that JESSICA investments were relatively small and the fixed costs of entering into the JESSICA arrangements made the economics less attractive unless part of a larger funding initiative from THFC.
The purpose of the EIB lending is for the development of “greener” social housing, i.e. built to Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4 (or better) or for retrofit of energy efficient features to existing social housing.
For further Information on the The London Green Fund click here
For further information on the JESSICA initiative click here