Great Places pre-tax surplus ‘ahead of budget’ in third quarter

The statement also said that drawn debt, excluding bond/loan premium and loan fees, was £659m, up from £647m in the previous quarter.

This was due to £18m in drawdowns on revolving credit facility loans and was offset by £6m in scheduled loan repayments.

The landlord included updates on other areas of the business, such as progress against its target of having 2,500 properties with an Energy Performance Certificate rating of Band C or higher by the end of the year. It now has 2,980 homes at this level.

The landlord believes it is on track to have 100% of stock condition surveys done by September 2025, with 90% already complete.

Overall customer satisfaction was 72.6%, in line with the target of 72%. Arrears had increased slightly to 3.9%, better than the target of 4.1%.

However, housing starts were off track, with 419 new affordable homes started across 10 sites in the nine months to December 24.

The landlord said it had a “strong pipeline” of sites, including 612 homes with planning approval and a further 566 homes submitted for planning approval in Q3.

In an update on sales, the landlord said 142 shared ownership homes were sold in the nine-month period.

Unreserved new homes were off target, with six homes unreserved after six months, including two show homes. “Overall sales performance year to date is positive with targets for both the number of sales and the income against those sales exceeding target,” the statement said.

During the quarter, Great Places started work on 132 new affordable homes in Pheasant Hill Park on the site of a former colliery in Doncaster, the latest phase of the Pheasant Hill development which will deliver 1,400 new homes.

The development will be a mix of one bedroom apartments and two, three and four bedroom homes, all available for affordable rent.