Financial update

Waqar Ahmed, Executive Group Director, Finance

In the current economic climate, L&Q, much like the wider social housing sector, are facing significant pressure on the work we do to ensure our residents have a decent standard of living. The government has recognised the huge challenge facing housing associations and will soon be undertaking an investigation into the sustainability of the sector, an investigation we welcome.

All areas of our business are acutely affected from repairs and maintenance services to our development pipeline. All combined have meant that we need to be more alert whilst maintaining compliance and leaving space financially for possible changes. This is a sector-wide issue, but thanks to a robust strategy in place, we can continue to deliver for our residents and continue to develop new affordable homes for future generations.

We won’t compromise on quality and service. L&Q is an ambitious organisation, and we have large, planned investment, decarbonisation, and development programmes, but we will be prioritising what we spend our money on.

We are absorbing external pressures and maximising every pound we spend. We have protected funding for investment in homes and still retain one of the largest pipelines in the sector.

By doing this we can still invest where our residents need it the most, continue to build new homes, and invest in communities whilst maintaining the confidence of our banks and the regulator. We have started the sector’s largest investment programme to improve our residents’ homes and services by setting aside some £3 billion of capacity over the next 15 years.

We continue to implement a long-term programme which will deliver a step change in the quality, safety and environmental efficiency of our homes and the services we provide, whilst providing extra help for those who need it the most. We will continue to work with our partners closely on any changes we may need to make.

A strategy will only get us halfway there. The rest is down to all of us in L&Q to deliver to the best of our abilities.  The two things that make L&Q a stand-out organisation are our people and our finances and the combination of both will see us through these difficult years ahead.