L&Q’s completions drop as it prioritises investment in existing homes

Ed Farnsworth, executive group director of finance at L&Q, said: “Investment in our development pipeline continues to reduce in line with our strategic objective to de-risk our business and prioritise investment in existing homes and services.”

However, he said the housing association continues to “seek opportunities to deliver affordable homes to help tackle the housing crisis where it doesn’t compromise these aims”. 

Of the 8,877 homes approved in L&Q’s development pipeline, 50% are for social rent and 50% are for market tenures. 

L&Q started 519 new homes on site in 2024-25, down from 813 the year before. 

The 109,000-home landlord’s turnover decreased by £24m from £1.12bn in 2023-24.

Mr Farnsworth said the preliminary unaudited results “reflect continued delivery against our corporate strategy that prioritises providing better services for residents and creating capacity for greater investment in our existing homes to ensure their ongoing safety, comfort and environmental performance”.

L&Q invested £372m in its maintenance programme, up from £328m in 2024.

“We are now moving into the third year of our £3bn, 15-year major works investment programme that will ensure every resident’s home is a safe, sustainable and decent place to live, and drive down our expenditure on repairs,” Mr Farnsworth said.

He said L&Q continues to take a “strategic approach to rationalising stock”, considering homes for transfer or sale where they “sit outside our core areas of Greater London and Greater Manchester, or are uneconomic for us to maintain”. 

“This includes our announcement in Q4 of our plans to transfer 3,500 homes in South Buckinghamshire, which supports our strategic decision to focus our activity on areas where we have the greatest concentration of homes, enabling us to provide more efficient and better value services for residents,” Mr Farnsworth said. 

As at 31 March 2025, fixed asset sales generated a surplus of £146m, up from £117m in 2024.  

EBITDA was higher year-on-year at £376m in 2025, compared to £343m in 2024.

Mr Farnsworth said the results exclude any provision for impairment that is subject to audit review. 

“Our current estimate suggests that the net impairment charge could be in the range of £20m to £40m, which will lower operating surplus but will not impact EBITDA. 

“The primary reason for the variance is the marginal cost accounting treatment for impairment,” he said. 

He said this links the cost of impairments to the bond markets, “which have been volatile in recent months”. 

“Our balance sheet remains well capitalised with net debt stable at £5.4bn and available liquidity of £1bn,” Mr Farnsworth added.