The real estate advisory team at FRP has arranged £3m of bridging finance with Secure Trust Bank Business Finance to fund remediation of a former gas works site in Tonbridge, Kent.
The works will prepare the land for a scheme of 144 apartments, and the borrower plans to refinance onto development finance once they are complete.
The 18-month bridging finance is structured at 44% loan-to-value (LTV). It refinances the site and releases equity to fund the remedial works. The scheme comprises 52 one-bedroom, 69 two-bedroom and 23 three-bedroom apartments.
SGN, which runs the gas network across southern England and Scotland, owns 110 gas holders and is dismantling them so the land can be regenerated. Developers must make the ground safe before homes can follow, and the government has opened a further £34.7m round of its Brownfield Land Release Fund this year to help councils meet the remediation and other abnormal costs that stall brownfield sites. At Tonbridge, the bridging finance funds that stage.
Edward Horn-Smith, partner, led the transaction with Corey Dennis, associate director, from the developer’s first approach through to completion. The developer, which has more than 30 years’ experience, approached FRP directly and needed the remedial works funded before anything could be built. FRP structured the facility around the developer’s plan for the site and placed it with Secure Trust Bank Business Finance.
The deal went to the lender on the strength of its understanding of the remedial works and its pricing. The bank has been expanding its bridging range and originated £40m of bridging loans in the first half of 2026.
“A gas works is not a site many lenders want to take on in a tough market, and the remediation is the one part of the project nobody sees once the homes are built,” said Horn-Smith (pictured).
“The developer had a clear plan for the land, so our job was to put that plan in front of a lender willing to take the time to understand the ground beneath it. Getting this stage right is what lets 144 homes follow.”
“Nobody wants to find out what is in the ground halfway through a build, so on a former gas works the first conversation is about the remediation, not the apartments,” added John O’Leary, senior relationship director at Secure Trust Bank Business Finance. “With a developer who has more than 30 years behind them and leverage at 44%, we were comfortable backing that stage. It is a long way from a gas works in Tonbridge to 144 homes, but this is the part that gets the site moving.”
Please visit:
Our Sponsor
