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Home Group Limited

Trading update for six months to 30 September 2024

Home Group Limited (Home Group) issues its unaudited Group trading update for the six months ended 30 September 2024. 

Commenting on the results, Helen Meehan, Chief Financial Officer said:

"During the first half of 2024/25 we have continued to see signs of recovery in our business environment and have delivered a surplus before tax of £24.1 million which represents a 17% increase year on year. The outturn for the second half of the year will again be challenging as we continue to experience higher maintenance costs reflecting our commitment to improve and maintain our customers' homes. Some maintenance spend planned in the first half of the year will now happen in the second half of the year, and we anticipate an increase in the volume of repairs in the winter period. However, we are still aiming to achieve our full year budgeted surplus.

In August 2024 we were once again really pleased to have our Standard & Poor's (S&P) rating reaffirmed at A - with a stable outlook. S&P recognised that we have consistently demonstrated a derisked development plan with lower exposure to the property market.  S&P also recognised that there is flexibility within our plans to mitigate cost and investment pressures should we need to and that we have strength in our levels of available liquidity. This ability to be flexible is crucial to delivering the best outcomes for our customers.

We remain committed to increasing the number of affordable homes we own and manage, and our delivery programme is focussed on delivering the right mix of homes for customers. During the first half of 2024/25 we have delivered almost 450 homes for social and affordable rent or affordable home ownership which represents a 42% increase on the same period last year. Our development activity continues to be subject to robust risk management and we will only proceed with schemes that meet our target development key performance indicators.

We continue to be focussed on delivering our customer promise, and we are transitioning to a regional model of service delivery which will allow us to work more locally, driving an increased focus on working with local partners and ultimately bringing us closer to better understanding the customers and communities we serve. Customers are at the heart of what we do, and through our wide-ranging customer engagement and scrutiny activities, our customers can measure how we are performing and hold us to account."

The full trading update is available at:

https://media.umbraco.io/home-group-heartcore/azfdvpmz/trading-update-to-30-september-2024.pdf

For further information, please contact:

Steve Hallowell

Director of Treasury and Investor Relations

M:  07736 097160

Email:  steve.hallowell@homegroup.org.uk