Paradigm exceeds development target

Paradigm has increased its annual development by 17%.

The 16,000-home association, in its financial statements for the year to 31 March, said it completed 522 homes in 2023/24.

This is up on the 446 it delivered last year and means that it has comfortably beat its target of 450.

It said: “Our strategic view is that the development of new homes is a central part of our corporate mission.

“It represents the application of our financial resources to our main charitable purpose, which is to house as many people in housing need as we sustainably can.”

The increase is despite Paradigm last summer reducing its build target for 2021-26 from 2,250 to 1,950 homes due to the “challenging economic environment”.

In today’s statements, it said: “The development pipeline at the end of the year is 990 homes, with 637 new plots having been secured during the year.

“This means our development pipeline is at a level where the approved and contracted investment proposals will meet the target of 1,950 homes through to the end of the corporate plan period.”

Of the 522 homes completed, 18 were for open market sale, 167 were shared ownership, with 315 for affordable rent and 22 social rent.

Paradigm also increased its turnover by 23%, from £122.3m to £150.5m, while its surplus increased from £17.8m to £20.6m.

The turnover was boosted by higher income from shared ownership first tranche sales of £34.6m, compared to £32m the previous year. Its overall social housing lettings income increased from £100.1m to £110.5m.

Paradigm said the increase in its surplus was driven by “strong first-tranche sales and net surplus from our jointly controlled operations”. This was offset by nearly £5m in higher interest costs and a one-off impairment charge.

The landlord sold 198 shared ownership first tranche properties in the year, compared to 103 last year. Higher than expected prices for shared ownership and higher share purchases meant Paradigm’s overall margin on shared ownership sales was 28.6% against a budget of 23%.

Paradigm increased the amount it spent on improving existing properties from £38.6m to £46.7m.

The landlord said it improved processes to get repair jobs scheduled sooner, to reduce the number of long-standing repairs and to increase our focus on communal repairs.

However, its customer satisfaction with its repairs service dropped from 82.5% to 81.3% year-on year, against a target of 80%.

It said: “Our analysis indicates that this drop is mainly driven by customers wanting a replacement of components rather than a repair and issues around delays/ chasing repairs. We are looking into ways to be clearer about our ability to repair vs replace to manage customer expectations in this area. We are also investigating delays driven by seasonal demand via our improved scheduling processes”.