Guinness boosts completions and starts by more than 60%

Guinness Partnership has increased both its starts and completions by more than 60%, following delays to the previous year’s development programme.

The 70,000-home housing association, in a trading update for the six months to 30 September, said it started work on 347 homes, up from 210 in the same period the previous year.

The number of homes completed has increased to 567 homes delivered in the half year, compared to 346 last year.

The latest figures follow delays to the previous year’s programme, which the housing association said was due to contractor insolvencies, which meant only 608 out of 1,055 planned homes were delivered in the year to 31 March.

Guinness in September said it has revised down its strategy target of building 5,500 homes between 2018 and 2025 to 4,000.

In today’s update it said: “In common with others in the social housing sector, we are delivering fewer new homes than we had originally set out to do, due to the need to invest in our existing homes and the broader economic environment.

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“Contractor failure within the construction sector has also impacted our new homes delivery programme and capacity to invest. However, we remain committed to developing new homes and during the six months to 30 September 2024, we completed 347 new homes and started on site with a further 487 homes. We continue to monitor and manage the risks associated with delivering new homes to ensure that our exposure is at an appropriate level.”

Guinness said its turnover for the half-year has increased to £261m, up from £224m the previous year.

Its total surplus dropped from £20.6m to £16.4m year-on-year. The update said this was caused primarily by increased net interest costs. Its operating surplus, which excludes one-off costs rose from £50m to £55.1m.

The group also said its exit from regulated care activities, which is due to complete next month, will improve its operating surplus by £1.2m this year.