Inside Housing – Home – Landlord hits development targets alongside 62% increase in investment in existing homes

Of the 222 unsold at March 2024, 138 were reserved for purchase, Platform added.
The 49,000-home landlord’s operating margin excluding fixed asset sales fell slightly to 24.1%, compared to 27.4% the previous year, while its operating margin for social housing lettings also dropped, from 32.1% to 30.2%. 
Elizabeth Froude, chief executive of Platform, said: “Our highest priorities for this year were about investing to support the quality of our homes, their energy standards and the services we deliver to our customers.”
Ms Froude said that despite the slight decline in operating margin, “it still remains one of the strongest in the sector and directly reflects the priorities agreed”.
Platform said it had increased its spend on energy improvement works from £5.5m to £8.5m, with 76% of its stock rated Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band C or above.
Earlier this month, the housing association revealed that it had achieved the highest amount of starts it has ever recorded in a single financial year, posting starts on 1,534 homes for 2023-24. 
“We have strong partnerships and our pipeline for new development is over 3,000 homes in contract or construction, all of which will be EPC B or above and includes net zero carbon and ‘zero bills’ homes as well,” Ms Froude said. 
The number of complaints received increased during the period, Ms Froude said, adding that Platform is “working hard to improve response times and to embed lessons learned from complaints”.
“With our in-house maintenance business continuing to grow and in-source more service areas, we continue to deliver good compliance standards and strong customer satisfaction with repairs at 87% at the year end,” she said.



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