Group chief says huge increase in investment is ‘morally the right thing to do’ in trading update
Platform Housing Group has reported a 141% increase in investment in its existing stock in its latest trading update.
The 49,000-home provider, one of the largest housing associations in the Midlands, published an update this morning for the nine months to December 2024.
The increase took spending in the period to £44.4m, compared with £18.4m in the equivalent nine months in the previous year.
As well as the massive increase in spending on existing stock, the update showed healthy growth in turnover and surplus.
Turnover for the period came in at £285m, up 14% on the £249.9m recorded in the same period the previous year.
The vast majority (94.1%) of this came from its core social housing activities.
Operating surpluses were also up, by 14.2% to £76.2m.
The organisation invested £230.5m in new homes, 5.5% less than in the same period the year prior, but completed 29.7% more – a total of 732 new homes in the nine-month period.
Elizabeth Froude, Platform’s chief executive, said that the housing sector faced “a difficult environment”, citing regulatory pressures, the chronic undersupply of homes in the UK and the wider global eco-political environment.
“All of these pressures are showing in the increased operational costs across the sector and Platform is no different as we step up the investment in our existing homes each year and have a long road to go until we reach carbon-neutral homes,” she said.
“This year so far, that is an increase of £26m or 141%. This is strategically and morally the right thing to do, and we will continue to find ways to maximise our ability to achieve this.”
Froude said the coming year would “undoubtedly be even harder”, with increases to rental income limited by “the lowest inflationary increase for three years”, and costs growing at a faster rate.
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