Places for People boosts surplus to £130m

In its response to Inside Housing’s Biggest Builders survey, the association said that it had built 436 homes for social rent, putting it second in the UK for that tenure.

Places for People also said its surplus figure was boosted by negative goodwill, something that appears in a financial statement when the price paid for an acquisition is less than the fair value of its assets.

Last year, it acquired troubled provider Luminus following a turbulent year for the smaller organisation, leading to negative goodwill income of £45.2m.

In the previous year, it received £41.4m of negative goodwill income from acquiring the 25,000-home association Derwent Living.

Aside from these, its underlying surpluses of £78.3m for 2016/17 and £85m for 2017/18 still constitute year-on-year increases.

In its accounts, Places for People said that as part of the group, Luminus “aims to deliver services more efficiently, whilst expanding the services it offers customers”.

David Cowans, chief executive of Places for People, said: “We have achieved a strong set of results which will enable us to continue to deliver our ambitious investment and development plans.

“Our not-for-dividend model means that all profits are reinvested back into homes and communities to help us to achieve our vision of creating places that work for everyone. Our business model gives us an agility to respond to market conditions in order to protect and increase our assets and revenue, which in turn enables us to reinvest more.”

The association’s property management arm, Residential Management Group, has a health and safety business called Osterna.

Since the Grenfell Tower fire, this company has been reviewing fire risk assessments on Places for People’s stock and on the stock of other housing associations, including Metropolitan.