Clarion increases turnover 15% as sales income rises

Clarion increased its turnover and profit for the first three-quarters of 2021/22 as its sales bounced back from a pandemic slowdown.

The 125,000-home housing association, in a trading update, reported revenue of £783m for the first nine months of the financial year, up from £677m the previous year. It increased its operating surplus 22% from £203m to £249m over the same period.

The increase was driven in part by a rebound in outright market and shared ownership sales, which generated an income of £222m, up from the £132m generated in the same period the year before.

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The latest update shows the group completed 1,586 new homes during the first nine months of 2021/22, 83% of which were affordable. It completed 1,452 in the same period in 2020. It has 22,750 homes in the pipeline.

The housing association’s total capital investment in existing homes in the first nine months of last year was £89m compared to £59m during the same period in 2020/21.

The rebound in sales follows Clarion’s final results for 2020/21 last year, in which the group reported a 27% decrease in surplus due to a pause in stock sales because of the covid-19 lockdown.

Clarion’s development arm Latimer was last month given planning permission for a 302-home mixed-tenure scheme next to the former Rowntree confectionery factory in York.

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