You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Strategic partner reveals increase in grant to £127m amid ‘another challenging period’
Aster Group told the stock market that it has renegotiated its strategic partnership delivery plans and increased its grant funding to £127m, as it aims to deliver 1,500 homes by March 2028.
In its unaudited group trading update for the six months ending 30 September 2023, the landlord revealed it had renegotiated its grant from Homes England at the same time as completing 533 homes.
The increase in Homes England cash is up £13m from when the funding was first announced in September 2021.
The 36,000-home housing association said that “despite another challenging period”, it achieved a profit before tax of £23.3m for these six months, on a turnover of £159m.
Aster also noted that “development delivery continues to be challenged through planning delays including water neutrality solutions and a slow-down in build on house builder sites to reflect sales”.
READ MORE
On the sale of shared ownership and open market homes, the landlord sold 252 homes, down more than half on the period up to March 2023.
However, it said it continues to see high demand for shared ownership properties, with first tranche sales of £28m for the six-month period at an average sales percentage of 42%.
The association’s other financial metrics reported an overall operating margin of 18.8%, an increase from 15.8%.
Aster said: “Our strong operational management and financial stability remain robust. We’re pleased to continue to hold our governance and viability ratings at the highest levels of G1/V1, which was reaffirmed by the [English] regulator in July 2023 – something we have maintained since the gradings were introduced.
“The learnings from our own governance review in 22-23 are focused on balancing good governance with agility and pace and ensuring continued connectivity between all elements of our governance structure.”
In September, Aster was one of six landlords that housing secretary Michael Gove sent a letter to over severe maladministration findings.
Writing to Bjorn Howard, chief executive of Aster, Mr Gove said the housing association’s handling of flooring repairs to a vulnerable resident’s home “fell well below the standard your residents should be able to expect to receive”.
At the time, Mr Howard said: “We would like to make clear once more our sincere regret for how this complaint was initially handled. We fell short of the high standards we set ourselves, fully accept the ombudsman’s findings and have apologised to our customer for their experience.
“Since this issue arose in 2020, we’ve worked with our customer to ensure that her home is up to the standards she should expect, including replacing the flooring throughout the property.”
In its November stock market update this week, Aster said: “Our team has remained focused on delivering our customer service modernisation programme, which includes measures to drive up standards, improve digital self-serve options and streamline our repairs operations to reduce cost.”
It also revealed plans to co-design services with residents after being accredited by Tpas.
In May this year, Aster revealed it had built 1,312 new properties in its last financial year, its highest ever total over a 12-month period.
Sign up for our development and finance newsletter
Already have an account? Click here to manage your newsletters
