L&Q Promises a Strong Housing Pipeline for London and a Commitment to Community Investment

Housing association L&Q, the largest housing provider in London and the South East, has announced a solid set of results for the past year.

Against a backdrop of economic recession and a radical shift in government policy, L&Q reported that its surplus for the past year was £41 million with 1,700 new homes completed. The full amount of the surplus has been immediately re-invested in the delivery of more homes, stock improvement and neighbourhood schemes.

“The need to deliver affordable homes has never been greater and I am extremely pleased to announce that our financial security will allow us to progress with L&Q’s pipeline of new homes and ensure the continual improvement of service delivery to our residents,” said Waqar Ahmed, L&Q’s Group Director of Finance.

L&Q has committed £1.25 billion to its development pipeline of 8,900 new homes and fulfilling its part within the wider need for the South East to meet housing targets. All of its £41 million surplus will be invested in the improvement of services to existing residents across its 67,100 homes and in the development of more affordable homes.

Waqar Ahmed said: “Despite the social and economic difficulties of the past year, resident satisfaction levels have now reached 80.2 per cent, the third consecutive annual increase, which places L&Q in the top quartile of housing associations. We feel that this is an indication of the investment of time and money that is devoted to the maintenance and management of our properties.”

L&Q’s position of financial robustness and its adherence to value for money will assure its future ability to deliver on new housing and maintain service delivery. It is committed to achieving further efficiencies of £22 million by 2013, is already benefiting from the creation of its own construction arm – Quadrant Construction Services – by reducing third party costs, and has cut consultants fees by 33 per cent.

“L&Q has maintained its year-on-year operating margin despite the challenging market conditions and the uncertainty created by seismic shifts in Government policy,” explained Waqar Ahmed. “The robust base that this performance affords us, and the scale of the balance sheet, allows us to push ahead with the delivery of new houses and L&Q’s commitment to provide a high level service to its residents.”

The accounts also confirm the creation of a new L&Q Foundation which includes a commitment of £100 million of L&Q’s internal capacity for community-related projects aligned to L&Q’s social mission.

Mike Donaldson, L&Q’s Group Director of Strategy and Operations explained: “L&Q is committed to investing in its communities through projects which increase our residents’ skills and employability; tackle disadvantage; provide support and activities for young people; help to minimise ASB; and provide volunteering opportunities.

“We have a strong track record in delivering our neighbourhood investment programme and decided to bring all of this work from across the group together into the L&Q Foundation so that we can continue to deliver ever more efficient and effective projects for our residents.”

Selected highlights from L&Q’s 2011 financial statements show:

• L&Q increased the number of homes owned or managed across London and the South East by 5,000 to 67,100 in 2011
• Turnover decreased slightly from £330m to £327m in the last year, and the group posted a surplus of £41m
• £100m from the balance sheet is being set aside for community investment with the creation of the L&Q Foundation to give greater focus to L&Q’s work in the community and Neighbourhood Investment projects
• Operating costs (excluding costs of sales) rose by £23m compared to 2010 – the majority of this increase occurred through planned increases in repair and service costs to meet the Decent Homes Standard
• L&Q’s operating margin across the business has remained consistent at 26 per cent
• More than £144m was invested in upgrading and improving existing homes and L&Q is committed to a new development pipeline worth £1.25bn
• Resident satisfaction levels have increased to 80.2 per cent, the third year-on-year increase

Other performance highlights include a decrease in void periods across stock to only 1.2 per cent and a reduction in the number of properties failing decent home standards to under one per cent.

-Ends-

Notes to Editors:

L&Q is one of the UK’s leading housing associations and builds high quality, affordable homes across a mix of tenures – including general needs rent, intermediate market rent, part buy, part rent (affordable home ownership) and outright sale. This includes building new homes as well as refurbishing older homes.

L&Q is involved in large scale community regeneration projects across London and is committed to investing in local neighbourhoods and communities and has dedicated Neighbourhood Investment teams. L&Q works in partnership with local authorities and local and national voluntary and community agencies to develop opportunities for residents.

Our Neighbourhood Investment focus at present is on:

• Skills, training and employment
• Involving young people
• Community development
• Financial inclusion

About the L&Q Foundation

L&Q will allocate a £100m of its internal sheet capacity for community investment projects. £30m of this capacity will be set aside for revenue related Neighbourhood Investment projects. In cash terms this level of capacity will generate an annual spend budget of £1.5m. Examples include funding a programme to support women residents into governance, which has already helped students to become school governors and Councillors. In addition we have been working with non English speaking residents on projects to teach them English and will be extending this across L&Q’s area of operations.

The remaining £70m will be capacity set aside for capital related community investment projects that will improve the social infrastructure of our neighbourhoods and existing or planned developments. Examples include our estate regeneration plans on South Acton, Aylesbury and Haggerston. This allocation is for projects already within L&Q’s pipeline of developments.

The £100m is internal capacity which we will invest in community related projects. It is not external additional debt.

A five year commitment to spend £250,000 per annum on community projects as part of the Ujima Foundation remains as part of this. For more information on L&Q and for all the latest news about L&Q’s work visit www.lqgroup.org.uk

For further information please contact:

Nick Lieb PR Officer / nlieb@lqgroup.org.uk / 0844 406 9000 ext 5022