Boston Mayflower Finance PLC

23rd November 2021
 

Credit rating downgrade to A (negative outlook)

A key objective of LHP is to ensure the quality of homes for our tenants is above the Decent Homes Standard and to undertake improvements at the earliest opportunity to support our commitment to tenant satisfaction and the quality of the homes we provide. We continue to invest in upgrading our homes including the catch up of works delayed because of the impacts of the pandemic lockdown in 2020; our programme to do this is regularly reviewed and refined. Our future spend also includes meeting the government target for this sector for all properties to be EPC C by 2030. The impact of investment in our stock has been to reduce EBITDA MRI over the next few years before trending upwards once more. We remain focused on ensuring strong viability of our financial plan and profitability metrics, balanced with our obligations to our tenants. We are committed to carrying out works as efficiently as possible, with a strong focus on cost and value for money, to limit the risk of cost rises and any potential deterioration on financials. The level of uncommitted spend provides flexibility to reduce development spend if necessary. Our conservative view towards financial management is reflected on our core focus on social housing, with less than 5% of revenue from shared ownership sales. We continue to see high demand for social housing in our areas of operation. Our recent treasury activities over the past year includes new funding and restructure of existing facilities reducing our funding costs going forward.

Our liquidity is supported with undrawn RCF facilities providing strong liquidity headroom.

Half Year Results

The half year results to the end of September 2021 shows LHP achieved Turnover target with £29.5m, Surplus before Tax with £5.6m and its planned programme of investment in component replacements. Rent lost through voids has continued to improve in the first half of the year with average rent lost down from 2.3% in Q4 2020/21 to 1.3% at the half year. Rent arrears have increased from a low base position at the end of Q4 2020/21 and continue to be an area of focus for us.

Board changes

During September Yvonne Lowe stepped down as a Board Director while Nicola Ebdon took over the role of Company Secretary from Zoe Wortley.

Investor presentation

Investors are invited to a virtual presentation on our results and plans on 8 December at 15:00. Please contact [email protected] for further details.