L&Q reports record investment in improving homes and services as it publishes financial results for 2024/25

L&Q has today published its annual financial statements, reporting record levels of investment in maintaining and improving homes and services, sector-leading efforts to build much-needed new homes, and a set of robust financial results that show strong year-on-year performance.

We invested a record £371m (2024: £326m) in our maintenance programme, and are now moving into the third year of our flagship £3bn, 15-year Major Works Investment programme that will ensure every resident’s home is a safe, sustainable and decent place to live, and drive down our expenditure on repairs.

During the year, we replaced over 10,400 housing components, including kitchens, bathrooms, windows and roofs, alongside carrying out critical fire safety works. Working in partnership with our major works contractors this programme has created £37m of social value (2024: £24m) through the creation of job and apprenticeship opportunities, improving community spaces and other activities.

Alongside investing in existing homes, L&Q continued to play a significant role in helping to tackle the housing crisis by completing 2,316 (2024: 2,955) new homes, of which 81% were for social housing tenures, making us the sector’s biggest builder of new homes for the sixth year in a row.

Work to restructure our balance sheet is progressing well. The sale of L&Q Estates was announced in August 2024, and our plans to sell L&Q’s private rented sector business, announced last November, continue to progress as part of a clear strategy to simplify our business, prioritise L&Q’s core purpose as a social housing provider, and generate additional financial capacity to invest in affordable housing.

We welcomed the clear signal from government in its spending review that it is serious about tackling the housing crisis, and we continue to engage with government to work through the detail behind these funding announcements.

Increased levels of grant funding, a ten-year rent settlement, rent convergence and access to the Building Safety Fund will give L&Q and the wider sector additional certainty to enable longer-term investments in both new and existing homes. Buoyed by this pivotal moment for the sector, we will continue to seek opportunities to deliver new affordable and social housing whilst ensuring it does not divert from our strategic aim to derisk our business and prioritise investment in existing homes.

The last year has seen us make excellent progress against our strategic plans whilst delivering robust financial results that show positive year-on-year performance. EBITDA MRI increased to £371m (2024: £343m). In the year-ended 31 March 2025, L&Q achieved an operating surplus of £377m (2024: £333m) with stable net debt at £5.4bn (2024: £5.4bn). Available liquidity at c.£1bn (2024: £1bn) demonstrates that L&Q has a well-capitalised balance sheet.

Ed Farnsworth, L&Q’s Executive Group Director, Finance, said:

“L&Q has a clear strategy to simplify our business, prioritise L&Q’s core purpose as a social housing provider, and generate additional financial capacity to invest in new and existing affordable housing.

"Residents are at the heart of those priorities, and this positive set of financial results is testament to that, highlighting record levels of investment in homes and services, and also demonstrating continued improvements in our operational performance, supported by the impact of our organisational transformation plans.

“Wider economic uncertainty remains, and we remain resilient and agile to adapt to future challenges. However, this is a period of significant opportunity for L&Q, with the government signalling the long-term investment in social housing that the sector has been calling for. These results demonstrate L&Q’s ongoing financial strength and viability, and ensure we remain in a sector-leading position to maximise future opportunities as we look ahead with optimism.”

Read L&Q’s full financial statements (PDF)

Highlights

• For the year ended 31 March 2025, L&Q achieved turnover of £1,111m (2024: £1,122m), EBITDA MRI of £371m (2024: £343m) and an underlying surplus after tax of £33m (2024: £117m).
• Turnover decreased by 1% to £1,111m (2024: £1,122m). Of turnover, 70% (2024: 63%) was generated from core social housing lettings activities. A further 18% (2024: 27%) was from market sales activity (including shared ownership first tranche sales), 6% (2024: 5%) from market rents and 6% from other activities (2024: 5%).
• EBITDA MRI increased by 8% to £371m (2024: £343m), EBITDA MRI margin was 32% (2024: 28%) and EBITDA MRI interest cover was 156% (2024: 142%). The year-on-year increase in EBITDA MRI reflects our focus on delivering our strategic objectives, against a backdrop of inflationary pressures.
• Net debt remained stable at £5.4m (2024: £5.4m) and available liquidity at just over £1bn was also broadly stable (2024: £1bn) demonstrating continued success to conserve cash flows.
• L&Q continues to maintain a strong financial position with total assets less current liabilities at £13,591m (2024: £13,667m) and net assets at £5,754m (2024: £5,721m). The housing properties portfolio grew by 2% to £11,807m (2024: £11,617m).
• Housing completions at 2,316 (2024: 2,955) of which 81% (2024: 68%) were for social housing tenures. This further demonstrates L&Q’s commitment to maximising its social purpose, while simultaneously, lowering its risk profile for commercial activity.
• L&Q invested £439m (2024: £424m) in new social housing, demonstrating continued progress against our ambition to tackle the housing crisis and £0m (2024: £2m) in new market rent properties. A further £42m (2024: £123m) was invested in private housing for sale we develop ourselves and £26m (2024: £24m) in joint venture partnerships. Profits generated from non-social housing activities are re-invested in the delivery of social housing.
• L&Q invested £371m (2024: £326m) in residents’ homes, including critical fire safety works. Building safety remains a priority, with L&Q delivering of one of the UK’s largest inspection and remediation programmes, covering over 1,800 buildings.
• L&Q’s Major Works Investment Programme is the industry’s largest investment programme – almost £3bn over 15 years – to improve the safety, comfort, and environmental performance of resident’s homes. This will see all L&Q homes maintained to the Decent Homes Standard.
• The charitable L&Q Foundation has played a vital role in continuing to support those who need it with L&Q investing £7m (2024: £8m) into the L&Q Foundation. Using the HACT Wellbeing Valuation Approach methodology the work of the Foundation created £22m of social value in the year (2024: £27m).
• L&Q remains fully compliant, with regulatory ratings at G2 for governance, V2 for financial viability, and C2 for the new consumer standard.