Industry News
L&Q exploring sale of private rental stock and strategic land functions
O
ne of the country’s biggest social landlords is exploring the sale of its private rental properties and strategic land company in
an effort to return itself to a traditional model and to ‘put residents first’. L&Q is the second large housing association
in the Spring to announce it is looking at changes to enable it to focus more on providing services to its existing residents. Clarion, which owns and manages 125,000 homes, announced it is planning a radical restructure to focus on improved housing management and customer service. L&Q chief executive Fiona Fletcher-Smith told
the UKREIIF conference in Leeds, that she did not see the functions as being core to the 109,000-home housing association’s mission. “We are putting our own house in order, and I think the innovative thing I am doing is taking us back to a traditional housing association where your residents come first and then you build,” she told a packed room of delegates. “We are in the market at the minute with the PRS, our commercial portfolio, we are in the
L&Q is the second large housing association in the Spring to announce it is looking at changes to enable it to focus more on providing services to its existing residents
market, we are about to do a deal on our strategic land company” Asked by the panel chair whether this meant
they were up for sale, she confirmed that they were. “Tey’re not core, they’re commercial activities that we bolted on over the years that don’t make sense anymore,” she continued. “So, they will help us to generate more capital. Tey will help declutter us, make us attractive to the rating agencies again, so we’re not as complicated.” A spokesperson for L&Q later said: “One in 23
children in London are homeless, and there is a significant need for new social housing to meet the scale of this crisis. In the absence of a long term government plan for housing that delivers the funding our sector needs, L&Q – like all
housing providers – is exploring opportunities to generate additional financial capacity to invest in affordable housing. “As part of this, we keep our non-core social
housing activity under regular review but no final decisions have been taken.” Most of the £1bn-turnover organisation’s private
rented properties are managed by L&Q PRS Co Limited, which, according to the most recent accounts, had a portfolio of 2,724 homes and generated an operating margin of 58%. Te association has previously said L&Q Estates
controls strategic land capable of potentially delivering more than 76,000 new homes nationwide, enabling the provider to operate as a major developer.
Over half of social landlords are missing 100% gas safety target
Less than half of social landlords (45%) have achieved 100% gas safety compliance, according to a survey of social landlords by the data collection organisation Housemark. On average, 99.98% of all social homes had an
up-to-date gas safety certificate as of 31 March. However, this means around 1,000 social homes did not comply with gas safety regulations at the end of March. Social housing landlords have actually improved
their performance on gas safety in the past 12 months, with a higher percentage of landlords (45%) reporting 100% compliance, but this figure is still down from the 69% of landlords who reported full compliance in 2019. In 2022/23, just 41% of landlords reported full gas safety compliance. Te report highlighted that factors such as “the
complexity of market conditions, the pandemic hangover and the asset management challenges faced by the sector” are affecting landlords’ compliance rates. John Wickenden, research manager at
Housemark said: “Our qualitative data from landlords also highlights that additional barriers to gas safety checks have emerged as a result of fuel poverty.” “Gas engineers are finding more tenants with no
money on the gas meter. Tis further indicator of the cost-of-living crisis is revealing new risks and vulnerabilities at a time when support agencies are at breaking point.” Tere has also been a slight fall in the proportion
of repairs completed within the target time, from 87% in December 2023 to 83% in March this year. According to Housemark’s 2023/24 data, there
has been an 18% increase in complaints, with a UK- wide average of 51.3 stage one and two complaints
per 1,000 properties. In the previous period (2022/23), social landlords received an average of 43.5 complaints per 1,000 properties. On the latest survey, Wickenden said: “It is
really encouraging to be able to highlight improved performance from housing providers on some key safety areas that will be reflected in Tenant Satisfaction Measures for 2023/24. He added: “Our data clearly shows that while
some metrics are improving, current headwinds and post pandemic recovery are still highlighting areas for improvement. For instance, in 2019, Housemark data showed that over two-thirds of landlords recorded 100% compliance with gas safety, now it is fewer than half.”
www.housingmmonline.co.uk | HMMJune/July 2024 | 17
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