The Intermediary – January 2026 - Flipbook - Page 43
SPECIALIST FINANCE
Opinion
Building Britain’s
next phase
I
spend an inordinate amount of
time speaking with financial
counterparties and industry
partners about the long-term
shape of the UK housing
market.
Ever increasingly, those
conversations are framed by a broader
concern coming out of the City: If
institutional investment isn’t enough
to cover what we need, is Britain’s vast
pool of pension capital next? Can this
be invested in a way that is productive,
resilient, and visibly beneficial to the
domestic economy? Or to mitigate
some of the risk of that, is now the
time to aggressively expand private
credit and specialised markets? This
includes opening up the powerhouse
that is our traditional and regulated
domestic mortgage broker market to
what could not only be the missing
link between private credit and our
home builders, but could also be a
market that is set to exponentially
‘boom’ in the coming months and
years.
UK pension schemes manage
trillions of pounds, yet only a
relatively small proportion find
their way into UK infrastructure or
productive domestic assets.
For years, capital has flowed
efficiently into global equities and
liquid markets, but the result has been
a growing disconnect between longterm savings and long-term national
needs.
Housing, infrastructure, and small
and medium-sized enterprise (SME)
growth all sit squarely in that gap,
and, through a process perhaps of
kismet or a simple twist of fate, our
sector has stepped into the breach to
fill the missing link between capital
and housing growth.
From my perspective as partnership
director at Invest&Fund, I believe
specialised private credit, such as
our asset class, is one of the most
understated and underexplored
opportunities in the market.
The private credit show is not new, but
its specialised application by our sector
to UK housing and SME development
has matured significantly. It offers
something that traditional bank
lending oen struggles to provide,
patience, flexibility, and deep sector
understanding. The UK does not suffer
from a lack of demand for homes;
it suffers from structural friction in
how those homes are financed and
delivered. Small and medium-sized
housebuilders, who once accounted
for a far greater share of housing
supply, have been disproportionately
squeezed by planning delays, rising
costs, and constrained bank appetite.
Yet these builders are essential if we
are serious about boosting delivery,
improving design quality, and
building in the right places.
Where private credit fits
in the housing puzzle
This is where specialist lenders
like Invest&Fund sit. We are an
institutionally backed private credit
platform, purpose-built to support
SME housebuilders and propertybacked businesses across the UK.
Our capital is long-term, and
our underwriting is grounded
in the realities of development
rather than tick-box credit models.
That alignment maers, not just
commercially, but strategically.
But capital alone does not solve
the problem. Distribution, advice,
and access are just as important.
This is where intermediaries play a
crucial role.
Our broker partners sit at the sharp
end of the market. You understand
local developers, regional dynamics,
and the nuances of individual projects
beer than a few others do.
You see, every day, where good
businesses struggle to access the right
kind of funding, not because they are
bad bets, but because they fall outside
the narrow parameters of high-street
lending. Working with specialist
ALAN FLETCHER
is partnership director
at Invest&Fund
lenders is not about replacing banks; it
is about complementing them.
Brokers who engage with platforms
like ours help match the right capital
to the right opportunity. In doing
so, you are not only supporting
your clients’ growth but also
contributing to a much larger market
opportunity: the revival of SME-led
housebuilding at scale.
That opportunity is significant.
Estimates suggest that if SME builders
were able to regain even part of
their historic market share, tens of
thousands of additional homes could
be delivered each year.
That would ease pressure
across the housing system, from
affordability to rental supply, while
supporting regional economic
growth. It is difficult to think of
many sectors where the alignment
between investor returns, and social
impact is as direct as in this one. As
previously stated, maybe it was just
a twist of fate, but what started as an
interesting narrative about the bale
to save the UK housing market has
become reality.
For brokers, the message is not that
you need to become infrastructure
experts or institutional allocators.
It is simply that by engaging with
specialist lenders like us, you can help
unlock a market that is growing in
relevance and importance.
In doing so, you are part of a
broader shi: reconnecting British
investment with British growth.
That, to my mind, is exactly the kind
of investment story the UK needs
more of. ●
January 2026 | The Intermediary
41
