Anchor insists it is on track with development despite missing targets

Housing association Anchor said it remains on track to hit its long-term goal of building 5,700 homes over a decade, despite delivering less than a fifth of the number of homes targeted in the last financial year.

The 48,000-home specialist older people’s housing provider said in its report and accounts for the year to March that just 82 of its homes reached practical completion in the year, 17% of its target number of 479, with the organisation blaming “materials and labour shortages” for delaying projects.

The record on new build came as the organisation reported a halving of its surplus for the year, to £12.2m, as the cost of repairs rose, despite turnover at the organisation increasing to £556m, up 5.6%.

The increased revenue stemmed in part from the integration of Halcyon Care Homes, which Anchor bought in November last year, and which generated £11.9m of revenue in the year. Following the acquisition, Anchor runs 125 care homes in addition to more than 48,000 individual homes.

Anchor said in the report that: “Materials and labour shortages also impacted our development activities, with four developments comprising 228 units which had been expected to open during the year now expected to open in the first six months of the next financial year

>> See also Housing association accounts 2022/23 coverage all in one place

However, it added that the organisation remained “on track to meet our Business Plan commitment to provide 5,700 new homes over 10 years”, and that during the year it completed six new developments.

So far Anchor has built 323 homes in the first three years of its ten-year plan. It said it is on-site with 834 units, and the Board has approved a pipeline of 1,363 plots.

Schemes completed during the last financial year included its first ever development with private retirement housing giant McCarthy & Stone, in Standish, Greater Manchester.

Anchor chair Christopher Kemball said: “Despite several significant challenges in the sectors in which we work and the wider economy, we continued to grow in 2022/23.

“Anchor’s tradition of innovating to meet the changing needs of older people means that the organisation remains in a strong position to provide those in later life with high quality housing and care.”