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Sovereign’s completions rise nearly 40% despite inflationary pressure
Sovereign said it had exceeded its development ambitions over the last financial year thanks to its “innovative” land-led approach to new development.
The 61,000-home landlord’s annual report, for the year end of March 2023, revealed it had completed 1,672 new homes, up around 40% on last year’s figure of 1,196.
It said this was ahead of its target, and against an uncertain political and economic backdrop that was plagued by major supply chain issues exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine, alongside inflationary pressures across the construction industry.
Sovereign said that the increase in completions shows that its “innovative and land-led approach towards new development is delivering”.
The association’s turnover now stands at £448.2m, which is an increase of more than £25m on the previous year.
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This meant Sovereign achieved an operating surplus of £123.9m and an overall surplus of £66m. Throughout the financial year, the landlord invested £135.5m in existing stock.
The association also provided some additional news on its planned merger with Network Homes, announced in March, that is scheduled to complete on 1 October 2023.
If the merger goes ahead as planned, Sovereign Network Group will have more than 80,000 homes, serve more than 210,000 customers and will be in the top six housing associations by size. It will also aim to be in the top three by development programme.
Sovereign said the tie-up would allow the new organisation to invest around £9.2bn in existing and new homes, allowing it to create 20% more new homes over the next decade.
It will also create a new community foundation that will look to invest £100m in the next 10 years.
Mark Washer, chief executive at Sovereign, said: “The performance figures in this year’s annual report demonstrate our ability to deliver for our customers through very challenging and unpredictable times.
“With our G1 rating recently restored by the regulator and data showing that our development ambitions are being exceeded, we continue to lay strong foundations for our proposed merger.
“Our goal is to deliver sector leading services for our current and future customers, and the publication of our latest annual report, which show us overdelivering, gives me every confidence that we will fulfil this ambition as we merge with Network Homes.”
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