Yorkshire Housing Group (including YH Finance plc) trading
update for the 6 months to 30th September
2024.
·
Yorkshire Housing Group (YH) is today issuing its
consolidated trading update for the 6 months ended 30th
September 2024.
·
These figures are unaudited and for information
purposes only.
Highlights for the period ending 30th September
2024
·
YH own and manage 18,943 homes.
·
YH has a regulatory rating of G1/V2.
·
YH has a credit rating with Moody's of A3
Stable.
·
Operating surplus for the period was £20.2m (2023:
£14.2m)
·
Net surplus before taxation was £11.3m (2023:
£6.2m)
·
EBITDA / MRI interest cover was 138% (2023:
142%)
·
Social Housing Lettings Interest Cover was 111%
(2023: 88%)
·
Gearing was 57% (2023: 55%)
Andy
Oldale, Executive Director Finance and Governance
commented:
"Despite a challenging economic
climate, Yorkshire Housing has delivered improved financial
performance compared to the same period last year.
I'm proud that our development
programme has already delivered 273 new homes during the first 6
months of this financial year, with a pipeline that will continue
to contribute towards an increase in affordable homes across
Yorkshire and the Humber. We have had to
flex our development programme to reflect economic reality, but are
on track to achieve our overall target of 8,000 new homes by
2035.
Our sales of shared ownership remain
strong, with 123 first tranche sales compared to 114 last
year. Our market sales are also recovering with 13 outright
sales in the first 6 months compared to just 1 for the same period
last year.
Pressure on our costs continues,
especially reactive repairs where we have seen a significant
increase in cost in the first half of the year. This is
clearly part of a sector-wide trend, however we are focused on
improving our efficiency and in the process of implementing new
systems to help reduce costs as well as working with our customers
to reduce the number of reactive repairs.
Although inflation is easing, our
customers continue to face significant cost of living
pressures. We work closely with them to help sustain
tenancies and have seen no increase in the rate of arrears.
Our Money Coaches have worked with 468 customers already this year,
supporting them with their finances.
At the same time, we have worked hard
to reduce the number of empty homes and these are now at their
lowest level since before the pandemic.
We remain committed to being a
sustainable organisation and have undertaken a range of activities
to make us be more sustainable and reduce our carbon
footprint. In particular, we have focused on improving the
energy efficiency of our homes and 82% are now at a minimum EPC C
level or above.
With good levels of liquidity we are
well placed to deliver on our strategy and ensure as many customers
as possible have a place they're proud to call home."
