Places for People Group Limited Trading Update for the
Period Ending 30 September 2024
Places for People Group Limited
Consolidated Interim Statement of Comprehensive Income For the
6 months ending 30 September 2024
|
|
6 months to
30 September 2024
£m
|
6 months to
30 September 2023
£m
|
12 months to 31 March
2024
£m
|
|
Group
turnover
|
481.8
|
414.4
|
831.6
|
|
Operating
profit before interet
|
103.3
|
84.7
|
211.1
|
|
Combinations that are in substance a gift
|
353.1
|
-
|
20.4
|
|
Interest
|
(105.5)
|
(61.0)
|
(146.0)
|
|
Profit on ordinary activities
before taxation
|
351.7
|
23.4
|
84.0
|
Places for People Group Limited (the "Group") is
pleased to issue its unaudited trading update for the six-month
period ending 30 September 2024 ("H1 2024", "the period").
Comparatives are shown for the prior year equivalent period being
the six months ended 30 September 2023 ("H1 2023"), which are also
unaudited, as well as for the audited year ended 31 March 2024
("2024").
In the period we saw a General Election with a change
of government. We expected a Labour government to be supportive of
the sector and the announcements on the rent settlement, the
increased grant under the Homes England Strategic Partnership and
the commitment to build 1.5 million homes are all positive for the
longer term. However, this is balanced with continued financial
pressures, through repairs and maintenance costs, higher staff
costs as a result of the increase in National Insurance, and higher
interest rates which are impacting us as well as the rest of the
sector.
In April 2024 we completed the merger with Origin
Housing Limited and the H1 2024 results include the one-off draft
profit from this merger which brought 6,800 homes into the Group.
There were a number of challenges that came with Origin and that we
were fully prepared for including onerous bank covenants and, in
the period, we repaid all of Origin's c£300m of bank debt and we
are still on track to complete the transfer of engagement by March
2026. In March 2024, we completed the merger with South Devon Rural
and in the period, followed by the transfer of engagement into
Places for People Living+ Limited.
We continue to prioritise our investment in the
safety and quality of our existing homes and have implemented
several measures to improve our repairs service and reduce
completion times. We are now starting to see the benefit of these
proactive measures, including the Home MOTs, and we are now seeing
demand starting to stabilise.
We are still committed to playing our part in
addressing the country's housing crisis and utilising the Homes
England Strategic Partnership we delivered 868 new homes in the
period (2023: 605) of which 672 were affordable.
Due to the increased investment in our homes and the
new development activity, we have increased our debt and, combined
with higher interest rates, are therefore seeing higher interest
costs, albeit that H1 2023 was reduced due to a £24.8m net gain on
debt breakage.
Overall, the Group's turnover for the period
increased to £481.8m (H1 2023 £414.4m) which generated an Operating
profit before interest of £103.3m (H1 2023: £84.7m). These
increases are partly due to the 7.7% rent increase and also include
6-months of Origin's results. The operating margin for the period
was 21.4% which is an improvement from 20.4% at H1 2023.
Profit on ordinary activities before taxation
increased to £351.7m (H1 2023 £23.4m) but after adjusting for the
negative goodwill and last year's debt breakage the H1 2024
performance is broadly consistent with H1 2023.
Despite the challenging economic backdrop, we
continue to invest in existing properties as well as delivering new
homes, and this remains key to our strategy and core purpose, as
the UK's leading social enterprise, of changing lives by creating
supporting thriving Communities.
