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WM Housing swings back into the black ahead of rebrand
WM Housing, one of the Midlands’ largest housing associations, has swung back into surplus ahead of a rebrand next month.
The 30,000-home landlord reported a post-tax surplus of £21m in the year to 31 March. In the previous year, the group racked up a deficit of £52m.
WM Housing conducted a debt refinancing exercise in 2017 which incurred £67.8m loan breakage costs in its previous financial year. However, the refinancing meant that Moody’s increased the association’s credit rating to A2.
WM Housing is due to rebrand as Citizen next month as it transforms its group structure, consolidating four registered provider subsidiaries into one legal entity.
In its last financial year, the group reported a 3.3% rise in turnover to £153.5m.
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Its core social housing business accounted for 88.6% of turnover, down from 93.6% the previous year.
Open market sales accounted for £4.2m – compared with £742,000 the year before.
Turnover from first tranche shared ownership sales was flat at £4.2m.
The association saw its biggest ever year for development in the 12 months to March this year, building 62 homes for shared ownership and 60 for outright sale, with another 278 for rent.
The group signed £91.5m worth of development contracts, with board approval in place for a further £39.7m.
According to the accounts, WM Housing has £58m of agreed borrowing facilities available for drawdown, with £617.3m total borrowings.
Rent arrears for the group were 3.85% in 2018/19, down slightly on the previous year but above its 3.22% target.
The association transformed its income collection team into a “shared services model” in December last year and said it has since seen significant improvements in the management of rent accounts.
Its £25.6m investment programme came in £1.6m under budget, having faced issues with a shortage of gas contractors able to deliver the heating upgrades planned and delays to its fire door replacements due to national supply chain issues in the wake of Grenfell.
In the first quarter of 2018/19, the annual report reveals WM Housing faced “significant challenges to the business” because of high levels of voids.
The association said the issue has been resolved, but that its average re-let time had still increased by 5.25 days to 26.36 days over the year.
Housing association financial statements 2018/19
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WM Housing swings back into the black ahead of rebrand
