Inside HousingVerified Source
RBKC and MHCLG among those to be looked at by CPS over possible Grenfell charges
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) have revealed that police files on them have been handed to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in relation to the Grenfell Tower fire.
The two are the first to be revealed out of 20 organisations that will be assessed for possible criminal offences over the 2017 fire that killed 72 people in west London.
RBKC said it has been referred to the CPS over three alleged offences: corporate manslaughter; Section 3 of Health and Safety at Work Act 1974; and contrary to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
The CPS will review the evidence supplied by the Metropolitan Police and then decide whether to charge the council, which was the landlord of the 24-storey Grenfell Tower.
Elizabeth Campbell, leader of RBKC, described it as a “significant moment” for all bereaved family members, survivors, residents and those affected by Grenfell.
Ms Campbell added: “The council has co-operated fully with the Metropolitan Police investigation, just as we fully co-operated throughout the separate Grenfell Tower Inquiry which concluded in 2024, and we will continue to provide any information or assistance asked of us.”
Separately, housing secretary Angela Rayner said that a file relating to MHCLG has been handed to the CPS.
The CPS will be looking at whether there is evidence of a “potential breach” of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, she said.
In a statement, Ms Rayner said: “I recognise the significance and gravity of this development, and we will respond with the appropriate and necessary diligence and care. The CPS will lead on the next steps and the government will continue to co-operate fully in the next stage of this process.”
She revealed that MHCLG was told by the Met Police in 2023 that it was under investigation.
“The department co-operated fully throughout,” Ms Rayner added. “In order to protect the integrity of the investigation, the department has not until now discussed publicly the detail of the investigation, including its own status as a subject of it.”
In her statement she apologised on “behalf of the British state”.
Ms Rayner said: “The government failed in its fundamental duty to keep the residents of Grenfell Tower safe. Lives were lost as a consequence of profound failures within the building safety system. On behalf of the British state, I am sorry.”
Her apology echoed that of former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, who made a similar statement two years ago.
Earlier today (Wednesday 30 September), the Met Police announced it handed 20 files to the CPS, which relate to 20 companies and 54 individuals.
The charges across the board to be considered include corporate manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, health and safety offences, fraud and fraud-related offences and misconduct in public office, according to the Met Police.
The CPS has committed to making charging decisions before the 10th anniversary of the tragedy in June 2027, the Met said.
Inside HousingVerified Source
Councils should not be ‘pitted against’ housing associations, former leader says
Councils should not be “pitted against” housing associations when it comes to delivering more social homes, the former leader of a local authority said.
Speaking on a panel at the Labour Party conference on Tuesday, Tom Hunt, former leader of Sheffield City Council, said the main aim was to get homes built for people who needed them.
“Just because we’re rightly talking about council housing, that should not be somehow pitted against housing associations who are doing important and brilliant work to provide much-needed homes in our communities,” he said.
Prime minister Andy Burnham has pledged to deliver the biggest council housebuilding programme since the post-war period, reiterating this commitment in his speech on Tuesday.
The panel focused on how Labour can deliver this.
Chair Rose Grayston, from Labour Housing Group and editor of the Red Brick housing blog, said housing associations had delivered the vast majority of social and affordable homes in recent years “as councils have been deskilled and… held back by Right to Buy”.
“Do you see councils as providing something different but complementary? Do you think councils should be looking at ways to work with those other types of provider?” she asked.
Mr Hunt said it “needs to be everything, everywhere, all at once”.
He said the majority of social homes in the pipeline in Sheffield will be delivered by housing associations.
“Because to be really blunt with you all, Sheffield does not have the ability through the HRA [Housing Revenue Account] to be able to do it ourselves, because it is stretch managing 38,000 properties, many of which are now 50, 60, 70 years old, sometimes even more,” Mr Hunt said.
He said the council had “pragmatically” chosen to make sites available to housing associations, “because they have the ability to get on and build”.
“And as a council leader, what I was most interested in is how can we get spades in the ground, foundations laid, bricks laid, people moving in, so that we can get our temporary-accommodation bill down, and we can give more people the safe, secure, stable, affordable homes that they need. So I think they are complementary,” he said.
Panellist Susan Brown, leader of Oxford City Council, said local authorities were well placed to deliver social housing. She said council housing was “publicly owned” and local authorities were “not reporting to shareholders” or boards.
“We’ve got councillors who are held accountable by their electorate, many of whom are council tenants, and we have tenants’ involvement in running our… services,” she said.
However, as reported earlier during the conference, many councils that do not have HRAs will have to rebuild skills from scratch. The government recently announced a funding pot of £46m over the next three years to strengthen councils’ capacity to build and buy new social homes.
On top of a skills gap, panellists said the cost of housebuilding will be an issue for councils’ already stretched budgets.
Ms Brown said: “We need sustainable funding to give confidence to the market, give confidence to councils, and give confidence to developers that will allow us to then develop the homes that we all need.”
Ben Cooper, head of the Fabian Housing Centre, a research programme of the Fabian Society thinktank, said the £31.8bn HRA debt needs to be brought back on the government’s balance sheet, but conceded that doing so would be complicated under current fiscal rules.
Mr Hunt said there had to be a conversation around the HRA.
“Let’s, as advocates of council housing, make the case that this has to be a moment where council housing has stable, secure funding streams attached to it,” he said.
Panellists discussed the different models councils could use to deliver homes, either directly, through housing companies, acquiring homes through Section 106, partnering with housing associations, or working with small and medium-sized enterprise builders and pension funds.
Oxford City Council’s housing company, Ox Place, aims to deliver 2,000 homes over 10 years.
An audience member raised concerns about councils being unwilling to get building.
Ms Brown said she believed “it comes down to housing targets”.
“There is no way around that and I thoroughly support housing targets, because some areas and some political parties are just unwilling to accept the reality of the homes that they need. So if they can blame government for forcing them to do what they should be doing anyway, as long as they’re doing it, I think that’s the main thing.”
Earlier this month, Matthew Pennycook, the housing minister, said the rebalancing of funding in favour of council delivery did not “necessarily need to come at the expense of housing associations”, but cast doubt on the possibility of a second wave of strategic partners.
Inside HousingVerified Source
We need a homelessness plan that extends beyond Christmas, charity director says
The director of social change at Homeless Link told the Labour Party conference on Monday “we need a homelessness plan that extends beyond Christmas”.
At a panel in Liverpool, referring to the prime minister’s announcement about a COVID-style ‘Everyone-In’ initiative to get rough sleepers in off the streets by Christmas, Fiona Colley said a lot of Homeless Link members were worried about what will happen after December.
She said she “nearly fell off her chair” when she heard Andy Burnham make his first pledge as prime minister to end rough sleeping.
Ms Colley said it had “brought hope” to the homelessness sector, but added that “hopes can be dashed”.
Following his announcement in August, charities urged Mr Burnham to ensure that people were “not just brought in from the cold for a few weeks, only to be sent back out again” and that “lasting recovery requires intensive, person-centred, joined-up support”.
Ms Colley told delegates about the current challenges facing the sector: since 2008, the number of bed spaces in the sector has declined by 41%, and 71% of organisations on the frontline report rising costs and real financial pressures.
“Over half of the day centres across England say that, due to the lack of inflation increases in their budgets, in their grants, in their contracts from local authorities, some of the services they’re running are simply no longer requireable,” she said.
Ms Colley said 90% of staff reported that they faced barriers accessing other support services, such as social care and mental health services. This meant the homelessness sector was operating as a “shadow social care sector, struggling to provide support that they are frankly neither qualified nor regulated to provide”.
She called for a plan that “goes beyond” Christmas. “There’s a great deal of focus at the moment on the quick win,” she added. But she said a lot of Homeless Link members were worried about what would happen in January. “Where are people going to move on to?”
Ms Colley also said there needed to be enough focus on prevention, stopping homelessness before it started.
“That requires a concerted effort in all parts of government. I think [the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government] is working very hard.
“It’s very clear that the prime minister understands the need for work across criminal justice, across immigration, across welfare. It’s not clear to me as yet that every other department understands the role that they need to play in making the real change,” she said.
Ms Colley said Mr Burnham would need something at the “heart of government”, such as a rough-sleeping taskforce, to do this. “We need that backed up by a funding model that is holistic and long term. It’s great to hear we’ve got another £440m to spend in the next couple of years.
“The reality is there is a huge amount of money being spent on homelessness, whether that is in the sector itself, whether it is the excess visits to A&E. But we’re just managing a crisis that’s only getting worse, and we need to step back and take a look at what needs to change fundamentally in the system, and that needs to be backed up by the money being different.”
Duncan Shrubsole, chief executive of St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity, spoke about the pressure facing frontline workers, who he said were key to helping people out of homelessness.
Its annual survey found that 85% of frontline workers reported facing challenges accessing suitable accommodation for their clients and over half said this had got harder in the past 12 months. The survey showed that 93% of frontline workers “still feel they’re making a difference” he said, but over half say “it’s at a cost to their own well-being”.
Over half said they were not paid enough to cover their own costs. Mr Shrubsol said: “We’ve got a workforce which is doing huge amounts of things, but actually struggling to put food on the table sometimes themselves.
“So overworked, under pressure and undervalued – we must listen to them if we want to achieve the change that they’re seeking.”
On Mr Burnham’s Christmas plans for rough sleepers, he said it must cover everybody, including those with no recourse to public funds, and women experiencing hidden homelessness. He said getting people in off the streets should be just the start and that we needed skilled people to “build the relationships with those individuals to engage them, to build their trust and confidence”.
“And thirdly, it’s what happens next that matters most. What’s going to happen in March, April, June, August, next November is really key.
“How do we ensure, at the individual level, we give people the accommodation and support to get off and stay off the streets. But how do we use this opportunity, this political will, to genuinely tackle and solve the long-term systemic issues that caused rough sleeping and homelessness in the first place?” Mr Shrubsole said.
He pointed to the lack affordable housing, public services that “discharge people without support”, Local Housing Allowance being out of line with rent levels, and the lack of a long-term funding framework for services.
He urged the government to put forward more funding in the Budget to tackle rough sleeping, and said action was needed not just on rough sleeping, but also on the 135,580 households in temporary accommodation.
“We’ve got a genuine chance now to make a real difference, but I don’t think we’ll get another chance after this. So we’ve all got to maximise the opportunity,” Mr Shrubsole said.
At another panel later on Monday on tackling rough sleeping, Matt Downie, chief executive of charity Crisis, said: “The question is how do you, in a moment of system design, get the redesign right so that there’s enough capacity and we start preventing homelessness at the scale we need?”
Mr Downie said what worked to tackle homelessness needed to be measured now.
He said: “At this moment of going into Christmas, into winter… let’s be honest, we’re building a plane as we’re flying it here.
“Lots of us are doing different and bigger and better things in our organisation to try and meet the moment. But we mustn’t come out the other end and go, ‘Well, actually, we didn’t measure what worked. We didn’t know what outcomes we were seeking. We were just all really busy because we wanted to go with sort of Andy’s vibe on this.’
We’ve got to do more than that, and I think that means mayors. I think it means local authorities coming together to say, ‘Can we be at least consistent about what we’re looking for here?’
“And it isn’t just, ‘Did people come in?’ And by the way, it’s much colder after Christmas than it is before Christmas.
“What are the outcomes that we’re seeking to achieve, and have they occurred, and do we measure them?”
He said “it’s quite often said that the definition of madness is doing the same thing and expecting different results. I think the definition of insanity, particularly in homelessness, is doing that when there’s a better evidence base for doing things differently.”
He referred to Housing First, which consistency achieved “much better outcomes than any other intervention on homelessness, bar none. Yet still, we debate whether or not to do it. Still, it’s not the mainstream response, and we even hear sometimes from people saying that there isn’t enough evidence, we need to trial it more, and a small piece of me dies inside from that.
“Because out there there are real people who we know whose lives have been normalised, transformed, moved beyond homelessness, and that only happens because we’ve treated people as equal citizens to say, ‘Well why wouldn’t you have access to a mainstream home?’”
Mr Downie said it was “time to fast track the lessons we have already learned” and to “make sure we’re clear about what happens over the next few months”.
Also at the session, Rachel Blake, MP for Cities of London and Westminster, said health and mental health services had to be talked about alongside housing. She also called for “co-ordinated commissioning” among councils for services.
On this, Dr Maya Singer Hobbs, senior research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank, said: “There are some really great examples of the mayors doing that – convening and bringing people together, pooled budgets, meaning that there is an incentive for the different local authorities to come together, especially if the mayor is adding in some funding there as well.”
Abtisam Mohamed, MP for Sheffield Central, said much more work needed to be done on prevention, giving an example of a pregnant woman with three children being turned away by her local authority.
She said too much focus was on process-following rather than prevention.
“How do we stop people from getting [to crisis point] to start off with? I think that is essential if we are going to be looking at long-term solutions.”
Property WeekVerified Source
Beaufort snaps up Nottingham industrial estate
The firm intends to invest in the 60,000 sq ft estate in Beeston with a number of ESG-forward initiatives.
The post Beaufort snaps up Nottingham industrial estate appeared first on Property Week.
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Experts welcome Rayner’s plans to regulate and crack down on ‘cowboy’ agents
During her speech at the Labour Party conference, the housing secretary unveiled new rules that will require property agents to obtain a licence and appropriate qualifications to operate.
The post Experts welcome Rayner’s plans to regulate and crack down on ‘cowboy’ agents appeared first on Property Week.
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Inside HousingVerified Source
Housing 21 sees surplus jump 43%, but warns over ‘uncertain’ economic outlook
Retirement and extra-care specialist Housing 21 has reported a 43% rise in annual surplus, but warned “careful management” was needed to handle economic pressures.
The Birmingham-based landlord recorded a surplus of £22.6m in the year to the end of March 2026, compared with £15.8m the year before.
Turnover rose by 11%, to £329m, helped by building new schemes, rent increases and more revenue from its private finance initiative/public-private partnership contracts, the group revealed in its annual report.
However, its bottom line was dragged down by a 7% rise in operating costs and costs of sales, to £281m. Interest and financing costs also increased to £33m, up from £29m.
In its annual report, Housing 21 warned that the wider economic outlook remained “uncertain”.
The group said: “The Iran war has increased volatility in global energy markets, with potential knock-on impacts for inflation, interest rates, construction costs and supply chain resilience.”
In its last full year, Housing 21 completed 337 properties across seven schemes. The figure was below its target of 352 handovers, but up from 255 the year before.
Starts totalled 566 across nine schemes, comfortably above a target of 396 and up from 511 the previous year.
“Alongside the borrowing requirements of the programme, these pressures require careful management, so we are smoothing delivery, adjusting phasing where needed and maintaining a disciplined approach to forecasting and financial capacity,” the group said.
Housing 21 was not named as one of 33 strategic partners of the government’s new Social and Affordable Homes Programme. However, there is still an opportunity for landlords to access grant through the continuous market engagement route.
The group’s overall operating margin was 14.6%, up from 11.4% the year before. Housing 21 said it was impacted by service charges and low margins from the care sector.
Housing 21’s EBITDA MRI (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, major repairs included) interest cover figures – a key measure of financial resilience – improved to 134.8% from 104.6%.
However, the group’s net debt rose to £750.9m, up from £682.3m the previous year. Gearing was 42%, up from 41.1%.
The landlord owns and manages around 24,000 properties, which includes nearly 14,000 retirement-living properties and 10,255 extra-care properties. Two years ago, the group completed its largest acquisition by buying 1,567 properties from Midland Heart housing association across 23 extra-care and retirement-living schemes.
Housing 21 currently has G1/V1/C1 grades from the English regulator. It was upgraded to C1 in May this year.
This month, Jane Holbrook, former chief executive of restaurant chain Wagamama, took over as chair of Housing 21, replacing Elaine Elkington.
Inside HousingVerified Source
S&P warns of NHG’s ‘reputational risks’ amid delayed accounts and sudden exit of chief executive
Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) faces “reputational risks” after delaying publishing its annual accounts for the third time in the past five years, S&P has warned.
The credit rating agency also said the sudden departure of the 68,000-home landlord’s chief executive this week and its “high turnover” of executives show “operational complexities”.
On Monday, NHG announced that Patrick Franco was stepping down with “immediate effect” after nearly four years leading the G15 housing association.
It came after the landlord revealed late last week it would miss the deadline for filing its annual accounts and was temporarily suspending the listing of its main market bonds.
It is the third time out of the past five filings that NHG has missed the deadline for its annual audited accounts.
“In our view, Notting Hill Genesis’ delay in publishing accounts adds to NHG’s reputation risks,” S&P said in a new report yesterday.
Unaudited accounts released in July showed that NHG had fallen to a £285m pre-tax deficit in the year to the end of March 2026, which was on top of a £130m deficit the year before.
Last week, S&P also downgraded the G15 landlord to a BBB+ credit rating because of concerns that NHG’s credit metrics will be “structurally weaker than previously projected due to much higher operating spending”.
S&P warned over “cost pressures” for the landlord, particularly from the “scale of required building safety and remediation works”. The agency also maintained its negative outlook on the group.
NHG has been non-compliant with the regulator’s governance and consumer standards for nearly two years.
The group currently has an interim chief financial officer, as sector veteran Ken Youngman was appointed to replace the departing Mark Smith earlier this year. In January this year, Vipul Thacker, who spent around a year in a newly created role to help with the group’s turnaround, left. Two years ago, NHG’s deputy chief executive also stepped down.
S&P’s report added: “We think that the high turnover of executives and the delays in the publication of accounts in recent years highlight operational complexities at NHG.”
The landlord has appointed a series of new executives to help, including a chief governance and risk officer, a chief customer officer, and a chief people officer.
Former Peabody chief executive Brendan Sarsfield joined as NHG’s chair a year ago.
Mr Sarsfield this week pointed to an “extremely challenging operating environment” for NHG.
He said the group had “strengthened governance and made progress towards returning to regulatory compliance, alongside making important safety and compliance improvements in homes” under Mr Franco.
Helen Evans, the former chief executive of Network Homes and one-time G15 chair, has taken over as NHG’s chief executive on an interim basis.
In response to S&P’s report, an NHG spokesperson said: “The issues identified by S&P reflect the significant, difficult and costly work required to complete essential remediation and fire safety work, including at Stratford Halo.
“We also recognise the operating margin challenges and the need for significant efficiency improvements, which we are working to address.
“Our business plan shows full compliance with all loan covenants and we have maintained high levels of liquidity to ensure we can finance the organisation through this period, a point recognised by S&P.”
The spokesperson added: “Our strategic asset disposal programme is continuing, which will reduce debt levels and simplify the business, aiding efficiency and focus.
"Our priorities remain unchanged: supporting our residents, investing in our existing homes, building our financial strength and delivering long-term value for the communities we serve.”
Inside HousingVerified Source
Your First Home uptake could be slow due to student loans scandal, thinktank warns
Uptake of the government’s new equity loan scheme for first-time buyers could be slower than the original Help to Buy policy due to the impact of the student loans “scandal”, a Labour-affiliated thinktank has warned.
Ben Cooper, head of the Fabian Housing Centre, told a fringe event at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Monday that young people were “very sceptical” of loans from the government, after they were “absolutely screwed over” on their student loan repayments.
The panel was discussing Your First Home, a new equity loan scheme for first-time buyers announced by prime minister Andy Burnham over the weekend.
It follows the Help to Buy scheme, which ran from 2013 to 2023 under the previous government to boost homeownership and stimulate housebuilding.
Mr Cooper said it was “absolutely fantastic” that the government was doing Your First Home, but warned that it would need to rebuild trust to encourage young people to take out a loan.
He said: “The slight worry I have – I hope I’m wrong – is I’m not entirely sure take-up will be the same now than it was when it was first introduced [as Help to Buy], because of the equity loan bit.
“Young people are very sceptical of any loan from the government because of the student loans system. When we did focus groups, and we said, ‘Would you take an equity loan from the government?’, they said, ‘We will not take anything from the government. We do not trust them’,” he continued.
“They’re thinking, ‘The last time I took a loan from the government, and it was specified how much I was to repay, I absolutely got screwed over, and I’ve ended up paying more.’ There is some work the government needs to do.”
In July, MPs on the Treasury Committee found that the government “mis-sold” student loans to more than five million people, after it failed to explain that the terms of the loan could be rewritten at any time.
When so-called Plan 2 student loans were announced in 2010, prospective students were told that the repayment threshold would increase every year in line with earnings. However, Plan 2 student loans’ threshold has repeatedly been frozen, thereby increasing the number of graduates charged higher rates of interest.
At the panel session on Monday, Mr Cooper admitted that it was difficult for the government to explain to people how much they would have to repay under a new equity loan scheme for first-time house buyers.
He said: “An equity loan depends on what your property value is at the end, [so] you can’t actually tell them how much they will pay.”
Still, he continued, “there is something that the government needs to do around showing how much they will pay – an estimated amount – and rebuilding trust.
“It’s not their fault, because the student loans scandal was under a previous government, but I think that’s something that we need to make sure the government is thinking about.”
More details of the Your First Home scheme will be confirmed at next month’s Budget, but the loans are expected to support 2.5% deposits.
People will be able to access equity loans with an initial interest-free period, meaning those who use the scheme could save hundreds of pounds per month compared with a 95% mortgage.
The scheme will also set a household income cap with local property price caps to further ensure support is targeted at people who need it.
Developers will be expected to contribute when signing up to the scheme, to help cover costs.
Share prices of house builders Barratt Redrow, Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon, Vistry, Bellway and Crest Nicholson all experienced double-digit gains on Monday after the government confirmed the new scheme.
Inside HousingVerified Source
4 takeaways from the Biggest Council House Builders 2026
We’ve published our list of the top 50 councils building the most homes. Jess McCabe runs through the main findings
Yesterday at the Labour Party conference, prime minister Andy Burnham reiterated his pledge for the biggest council housebuilding programme since the post-war period. That makes our exclusive data – showing in detail what councils are currently building – extremely timely.
You can read our full analysis here, including interactive charts and tables to explore. But what are the top-line findings from our data?
1. Council housebuilding is steady – but not massive
Our Freedom of Information request revealed that councils across England, Scotland and Wales completed 11,586 homes in total in the 2025-26 financial year. This is a growth of 0.2% among the councils for which we have two consecutive years of data.
The pipeline for all councils totals just under 70,000 homes, including around 10,000 through council-owned housing companies.
Compare this to the peak in 1967, when local authorities built 170,000 homes in just one year.
2. Top local authorities have a pro-growth agenda
When we spoke to councils at the top of the ranking, they talked a pro-development game that includes but doesn’t stop with their own development pipeline.
Leading the charts this year is Brent in north-west London. “We took a real decision that we want to be a positive, open council when it comes to matters of regeneration and homes delivery,” Matt Kelcher, Brent’s cabinet member for regeneration and planning, told Inside Housing.
Or as Greenwich Council’s leader Anthony Okereke put it, “our gloves are entirely off”. He also said: “You will see us in every economic forum that will be able to deliver housing, from UKREiiF to the London Real Estate Forum, because we want to be where the action is to make sure we can deliver for our residents.”
However, the developing councils do not neatly map onto those local authorities with large amounts of stock and big Housing Revenue Accounts. This infographic, which shows the breakdown of construction by the largest council landlords, paints a mixed picture:
3. London is still driving delivery
As has been the case since Inside Housing launched the Biggest Council House Builders list back in 2023, the top spot is taken by a London council. Indeed, seven of the top 10 are London boroughs.
Scotland and Wales – which have had consistent delivery programmes for years – also place highly, with Edinburgh taking the third spot in the whole of Britain, even as overall delivery of social housing in Scotland is decidedly wobbly.
Other councils in England may look at some of the reasons for this disparity and conclude that Westminster and Homes England might want to take some lessons here, if Mr Burnham really is serious about council housebuilding.
There are some obvious top lines. The Greater London Authority (GLA) has a specific grant programme for councils; neither Scotland nor Wales has the Right to Buy.
But there are other suggestions, too. Cambridge City Council, for example, one of three local authorities to win a Homes England strategic partnership, talks to us in the main article about the favourable treatment of regeneration by the GLA and how that could benefit councils such as Cambridge, where most of its available land to develop is on existing estates.
4. Social rent is still the dominant tenure
By far most of the homes developed by councils are for social rent. In total, the tenure made up nearly 65% of homes completed by councils directly, and 23% of homes delivered through council-owned housing companies.
By contrast, only a quarter of housing association completions were social rent, our Biggest Builders survey revealed earlier this year.
Outside of social rent, councils told us they were building a much wider range of homes than their housing association colleagues report, with many opting for variations of discounted private rent, temporary accommodation and more.
For more detail and analysis, check out our full story on the Biggest Council House Builders, which also includes explorable interactive charts.
Inside HousingVerified Source
Hyde surplus rises despite leap in operating costs to more than £500m
G15 landlord Hyde has reported a 9% rise in its annual surplus despite its operating costs increasing sharply amid higher spending on its homes.
The group, which manages around 130,000 homes, recorded a post-tax surplus of £75m in the year to the end of March 2026. This compared with £69m the year before.
Hyde’s group turnover jumped by 36% year on year, to £634.9m, helped by a full year of trading since the housing association acquired property management firm Pinnacle, and taking on non-compliant landlord Tower Hamlets Community Housing (THCH). Pinnacle contributed £214m in turnover.
However, Hyde’s bottom line was hampered by a 43% year on year jump in operating costs to £554m.
The landlord also reported £37.5m in cost of sales, mostly related to shared ownership first-tranche transactions.
It meant that, on an operating basis, the group’s surplus slid to £70.6m, compared with £123m the year before.
In its annual report, Hyde revealed that it spent £134.2m on maintaining, repairing and improving homes, up from £123.8m the year before.
The group’s interest and financing costs also rose, to £67.3m, against £62m the previous year.
However, its overall surplus was helped by a £66.3m ‘gift on acquisition’ from taking on THCH. The figure was based on the fair value of THCH’s assets, minus costs related to the merger.
The annual report also revealed that Hyde spent £10.1m on building safety in its last full year. Since the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, the group has remediated 42 buildings, receiving £10.8m from the government’s Building Safety Fund and £3.4m from the Cladding Safety Scheme.
Hyde’s operating margin, based on the Regulator of Social Housing’s definition, fell to 6.8% from 16.7% the year before.
On development, Hyde reported 1,142 completions, including joint ventures, up from 602 the year before, helped by delayed schemes being finished.
The group’s development ambitions were boosted after being named one of 33 strategic partners for the government’s new Social and Affordable Homes Programme, in which Hyde was awarded £349.9m in grant.
Hyde also this year launched a joint venture with financial services firm Legal & General known internally as Project Clove, aimed at increasing delivery. The joint venture has acquired Hyde’s for-profit Halesworth for “nil consideration”, resulting in a loss to Hyde of £279,000. Hyde took full ownership of Halesworth after its original partner, French insurance giant AXA, sold its stake.
Hyde is stepping up its development efforts, having registered four new for-profit providers this month. It also has a partnership with investment manager M&G to fund a pipeline of shared ownership homes.
Writing in its annual report, Andy Hulme, group chief executive of Hyde, and Mike Kirk, its chair, said: “Grant funding alone won’t enable us to build the affordable homes the country needs.
“Institutional capital has a growing appetite for housing and we want to work with more partners to deliver thousands of affordable homes over the next five years, while generating stable, inflation-linked returns, for both ourselves and our partner investors.”
On Hyde’s overall financial resilience, the group recorded an EBITDA MRI (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, major repairs included) figure of 93.4%, a slight improvement on last year’s figure of 90.3%.
The group’s net debt edged down to £1.52bn, while gearing declined to 44.1%.
Hyde’s cash position improved slightly, to £129.8m.
Mr Hulme added: “There’s still much that we want to achieve. There are exciting opportunities within our communities, and the breadth of our customer and client offer gives us confidence for the next phase of our plans.”
Hyde currently holds G1/V2/C1 grades with the English regulator.