Great Places build target ‘at risk’ due to delays

Great Places Housing Group has said it as risk of missing its annual development target due to delays on a scheme in Manchester.

The 25,000-home North-west association, in an unaudited half year update, said its target of building 786 homes in the financial year is “looking at risk”. It said this was because of delays “almost entirely due to a single scheme in Manchester which includes 80 apartments”.

It said however it has 16 sites nearing completion with a high number of handovers expected in the third and fourth quarter.

The group’s surplus before tax in the six months was £13m,and it said it is on course for pre-tax surplus of £28m, up from £21.4m the previous year. This means however it will miss its targeted surplus for the year of £31.7m.

This is due to “increased repairs and maintenance expenditure which is largely due to the costs of surveying and remediating cases of damp, mould and condensation, and also higher than budgeted insurance costs following our October renewal”

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Great Places has also announced that it has appointed former Yorkshire Housing chief executive Mervyn Jones as its new chair. Jones has served as a board member at Great Places since 2020 and will take over as chair in January when current chair Tony Davison stands down.

Great Places announced in September that it had revised down the number of homes it is delivering through its £240m strategic partnership with Homes England by March 2028 from 4,920 to 4,500 homes due to “increasing cost pressures.”

The association also announced last month it is has hired Onward executive Mike Gerrard as its new chief financial officer.