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Aster’s surplus rises as pension deficit grows
Aster saw a 29% rise in its surplus over the past financial year, the organisation’s annual results have revealed, but its pension scheme deficit rose.
The housing association’s surplus rose from £34m in 2015/16 to £44m in 2016/17. Its turnover was a record £191m, up from £179m in the previous year, and it completed 829 homes, up from 724.
The group’s pension scheme also went down in value by £3m, its deficit growing from £34m to £38m. Aster is part of the Social Housing Pension Scheme (SHPS), which is not due to be revalued until the end of this month.
It is, however, involved in other pension schemes, which are revalued annually. These schemes cost it £3m, which could pre-empt that the imminent revaluation of SHPS will see an increased deficit.
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Last week, Inside Housing reported that Sanctuary, which left SHPS in June last year, saw its pension deficit double during 2016/17.
The group has invested more money in shared ownership, building 312 homes for the tenure. It recently called for a government publicity campaign after a survey it commissioned showed that four in 10 people do not understand shared ownership.
Bjorn Howard, chief executive of Aster, said: “We remain focused on operating effectively so we can continue to grow our profit pool. This allows us to build more homes and underpins our ambitious £1.5bn development plan over the next seven years.
“We also look for alternative ways to tackle the housing crisis, like our shared ownership development programme. We believe this product has a key role to play in helping hundreds of thousands of people currently trapped in ‘generation rent’.”
