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Planning and pandemic issues scupper East Midlands landlord’s development plans
Planning delays and post-COVID supply and material constraints have scuppered EMH Group’s development plans, its latest accounts revealed.
The financial statement for EMH Group for the year to the end of March 2022 showed the housing association had built less than two-thirds of its planned development pipeline in the previous 12 months.
The landlord built only 343 homes, or 60%, of its 550-home target for the year. Of those built, 137 were for affordable rent, 119 deemed as “low-cost homeownership”, 59 classed as supported housing, and 28 built for social rent. EMH Group built 407 homes in 2021.
The association identified a number of issues, including “the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and Ukrainian crisis as materials and resource become harder to secure coupled with delays on planning being awarded therefore delaying start on site”.
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The development shortfall had impacted the number of handovers the landlord had hoped to complete during the year, however it said it is still on track to deliver on its target of managing 21,500 homes by 2023.
EMH Group said: “Our target of 2,750 new homes over a five-year period is slightly behind schedule following the impacts of COVID-19. However, we are confident this growth will be delivered.”
The financial statement also showed that the cost of major repairs per home almost doubled from £355 in 2021 to £664 in 2022. Management cost per home stood at £1,029, up marginally from £997 in the previous year.
EMH Group’s revenues stayed flat at £121.6m, down from £122.6m in 2021, however surplus before tax fell from £16.1m last year to £11.1m in the latest results.
The drop in surplus was mainly due to a rise in operating costs, which went from £88.1m in 2021 to £94.8m in the latest figures.
The gross value of the association’s assets rose from £883.8m to £928.4m over the 12 months to the end of March.
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