UK’s largest housing association delivers record new homes despite COVID disruption

The association’s unaudited accounts released on Wednesday show that Clarion increased its turnover from £842m in 2019/20 to £943m in 2020/21, delivering an operating surplus of £254m. This represents a 13% fall on the previous year’s operating surplus of £293m. However, the landlord said the 2019/20 results included £38m from large-scale stock transfers and one-off gains of £16m in interest costs.

Clarion, a member of the G15 group of London’s biggest landlords, said fire safety “remains a key priority” and that £26.7m was spent on fire safety remediation in the year.

Despite a “challenging trading environment”, outright market and shared ownership sales generated an income of £213.3m, up from £127.4m in 2019/20.

The landlord also said it formed part of a successful bidding partnership for the government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, from which it received £4.5m with partners Fenland District Council and Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council. Clarion will match this funding with the aim of upgrading 160 of the most energy-inefficient homes in its stock in that area.

Clare Miller, group chief executive of Clarion, said: “I’m delighted to report a strong financial and operational performance in what has been a challenging year for us all. Throughout 2020/21 our focus has been supporting our people, our residents and maintaining our services as a responsible social landlord.

“Through our Clarion Futures foundation, we have found work for over 2,500 people, including 215 apprenticeships, and I am particularly pleased to report the completion of a record number of new homes this year – 90% of which were for affordable tenures.”