Chair's Statement
Yet again it has been a year disrupted by the pandemic and we are now facing another set of challenges that the increased cost of living will bring to the country.
Over and above that, the regulatory and political landscape is changing with more work on measures in the Social Housing White paper, Royal assent for the new Building Safety Act and housing featuring dominantly in both the Social Care and Levelling Up White Papers. There is also a commitment from Government to update the Decent Home Standard and tighten regulation of the private rented sector.
Within all this, customers remain at the centre of what we do. The Board’s work and focus for the year has been about ensuring that we are set up well to deliver for our customers in these challenging times. We were pleased to retain our G1/V1 rating with the Regulator of Social Housing following an in-depth assessment that was carried out in the year. This gives me confidence that we are in a good place to do the best for our customers.
Our geographical focus enables us to be deep-rooted in the communities that we work in. This year the development of our Neighbourhood Plans has been a priority, as the Plans provide a good framework for settle to take a more strategic and holistic approach to working in our neighbourhoods and enhance our role as a place-based organisation.
We have also made significant progress around our regeneration project at John Barker Place in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, where we have already committed to invest over £20m. So far we have delivered a new children’s play area, completed the first phase development of new homes, and started work on the second phase, which in total will deliver 83 homes and two shops. It has been fantastic to see this project progress. Working in collaboration with local residents and key stakeholders such as North Herts Council, we started work on site as planned last year, the first shop has now started trading from the new building, and at the time of writing, residents are about to start moving into the new apartments. We were delighted to be joined by partners including Kate Henderson, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, Elizabeth Dennis-Harburg, Leader of North Herts Council, and Nadine, Chair of the Resident Steering Group at an event to celebrate completion of the first building in June.
Sally Veitch, Chair
“Within all this, customers remain at the centre of what we do."
NEW HOMES
“Our target is to complete 1500 new homes by 2024 and we ended the year with 85% of these either already complete or committed to construction.”
Sector-wide disruption in the building sector held back completion of other new homes but we still maintained the momentum across our development plans. Our target is to complete 1500 new homes by 2024 and we ended the year with 85% of these either already complete or committed to construction. This is up from 53% last year. We committed 513 homes into contract in 21/22, investing over £87m in new homes altogether.
2021/22 has been another year where we have demonstrated continued financial strength. Our operating surplus of £20.5m enables us to continue investing in our homes and neighbourhoods. On 31st March we completed on a £75m ESG linked Revolving Credit Facility which raised additional funding to support development delivery whilst maintaining adequate liquidity.
During the year we made three strong appointments to the Board and filled the Vice Chair role. To ensure that customer service gets the right level of attention from the Board we have added an extra Board Committee purely focused on operations. This will provide the appropriate rigour and scrutiny to settle’s landlord services.
We have evolved our approach to diversity and inclusion and this has been reflected in the composition of the current Board; I have enjoyed being part of the National Housing Federation group that tackles Equality, Diversity and Inclusion through Board recruitment for all UK housing associations.
settle, along with all other Housing Associations, needs to respond to a range of challenges whether it be supporting customers as consumer inflation gathers pace as the world emerges from pandemic into the ravages of the war in Ukraine, or increased investment into our homes and neighbourhoods and the decarbonisation of our business. I strongly believe that settle is in a good place to respond effectively to these challenges, and I look forward to continuing to work with colleagues and stakeholders to help realise this.
I would like to finish by recording my thanks to my fellow Board members who have all been great pillars of support since I became Chair.