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Guinness posts £10m loss amid rising construction costs and delays
Large landlord The Guinness Partnership has recorded a loss of £10.8m in its latest financial results after being hit by rising costs and contractor insolvencies.
Guinness posts £10m loss amid rising construction costs and delays #ukhousingIn its accounts for the year to the end of March 2025, the 70,000-home provider explained that it had been “adversely impacted” by impairment charges of £21.4m.
The charges reflect a combination of lower sales values and issues with construction projects, including delays to projects and the collapse of key contractors.
These challenges also played a part in the landlord falling short of its completion target. In 2024-25, Guinness built 699 homes against its goal of 1,055. Starts came in at 347.
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The group’s overall operating margin was 9.4%, below its target and under the G15 group’s benchmark of 12%.
The landlord said its deterioration in surplus and margin also reflected the “early years impact” of its merger with Shepherds Bush Housing Association, which became its subsidiary in 2023.
In the year it joined, it reported a loss on social housing activities of £10.1m, primarily due to building safety works and investment in existing homes.
However, group turnover increased to £534.7m, up from £459.8m last year. Of the total turnover, 85.4% was generated through social housing lettings.
Last year Guinness invested £206.3m in repairing, maintaining and improving homes, meaning all but a very small number of homes continued to meet the Decent Homes Standard.
In July it launched a £300m building remediation framework covering residential and mixed-use developments across the UK.
Over the course of this year, the Energy Performance Certificate ratings of 2,012 homes have increased to Band C or better, and Guinness is on track to ensure all its homes meet that standard by 2030.
The landlord retained its gradings of G1/V2 from the Regulator of Social Housing and credit ratings of A- (negative) and A3 (stable) from S&P Global and Moody’s respectively.
In a joint statement, Guinness’ group chair Chris Wilson and chief executive Catriona Simons said: “Guinness continues to be financially resilient, with strong liquidity and capacity to invest in homes and services, albeit the demands on that capacity mean there continue to be choices to be made about how to meet our priorities.
“The scale of the challenges facing the social housing sector over the last decade is well known. These include cost pressures, the fragility of the contractor market and supply chains, and the wide-ranging investment needs of existing homes to keep them safe and fit for purpose in the medium to long term.”
Guinness is not the only landlord affected by contractor insolvencies. PA Housing revealed that it has put new projects on hold after contractor insolvencies led to an impairment of £5.2m.
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