Great Places undershoots starts target due to delayed 132-home scheme

Great Places Housing Group has missed its target for development starts in the first half of the year, due to delays to a scheme.

The housing association, which manages 27,000 homes across the north of England, said in a trading update it started work on 208 homes in the six months to 30 September. This is below its half-year target of 316.

The 27,000-home association said the delay was “mainly due to one large site of 132 homes delayed by a few weeks into October.” The organisation has set a target for starts in 2024/25, rather than for completions.

Great Places said its pre-tax surplus for the first half of 2023/24 was £15.7m, which it said is slightly ahead of budget.

It also achieved its internal financial ‘golden rules’ for interest cover, gearing and operating margin. It is forecasting surplus of £27m in the full year, which would be an increase on the £23.6m posted the previous year. This is despite £2m in higher operating costs due to fire safety assessments and stock maintenance work being brought forward.

However, its forecasting surplus from market sales schemes in the full year to be £0.7m less than expected, this would result in its operating margin target for the full year being missed by £1.2m. Great Places said this will remain “under review and challenge.”

The Manchester-based landlord said in the six month period it had me eight out of its 12 targets, which it calls ‘signals for success’.

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Its overall satisfaction measure was 73.4%, against a target of 72%, while it met its targets for arrears and bringing unreserved homes to market.

It has 3,101 properties still below Energy Performance Certificate C and says this is in line with its target of reducing this figure to 2,500 by year end.

In addition to lower than forecast starts, Great Places missed its target for completion of equality, diversity and inclusion data, in addition to its target for days lost to sickness and for leavers within 12 months of joining the group.

In a separate statement issued to Housing Today, Helen Spencer, executive director of growth at Great Places, said the delayed site has now contracted, a couple of weeks later than expected when targets were set six months ago.

She said: “Development is extremely fluid and presents many risks which need adequately mitigating to protect the financial strength of the organisation and ultimately protect social housing assets. Our robust processes and procedures identified a matter which required more time to deploy the appropriate mitigation measure.”