Last updated 24 October 2022
A2 Dominion
A2 Dominion is one of the UK’s largest registered social landlords and part of the G15 group of the largest housing providers in London. The group has nearly 40,000 properties owned or managed, turns over more than £460 million a year and has more than 3,300 new homes in development.
Financials
In the 2022 financial year, turnover at A2 Dominion rose to £465.8 million (2021: £303.3 million) and the operating surplus rose to £93.7 million (2021: £78.4 million). The overall surplus for the year soared to £42.1 million (2021: £6.4 million).
To view the financials for A2 Dominion, visit the group’s website here.
Operations
A2 Dominion is based in London and builds affordable, private and social rented homes, student, key worker and temporary accommodation, and supported housing and retirement homes. The group also builds homes for sale and shared ownership through its FABRICA by A2Dominion brand.
The group seeks to work with joint venture partners that align with its aim. Regular JV partners include Crest Nicholson, Mount Anvil, Nicholas King Homes and is working with Rydon to deliver the Jigsaw regeneration project at Green Man Lane in Ealing (Project ID: 13346307).
A2 Dominion is also involved with Cherwell District Council on the North West Bicester Eco Town, which includes plans for 6,000 new homes (Project ID: 09232811) and the £520 million Ruby Triangle scheme to deliver 1,165 new homes on the Old Kent Road at Southwark, south London (Project ID: 17270123).
In 2021, A2 Dominion set up a Group Commercial Contractor Framework Agreement, which is expected to produce spending of £900 million over the next four years with 35 contractors appointed (Project ID: 20360660). The group aims to deliver 1,200 units per year with 40% of the pipeline for private sale and the remaining 60% shared equally between affordable rent, private rent and shared ownership.
The work is being divided into three regional lots, each with three project value bands of up to £10 million, £10 million to £25 million, and more than £25 million. London and Home Counties region is expected to account for around £630 million of the forecast spend, followed by Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire at around £154 million, and Bristol and Avon in the south west on £116 million.
In 2021, A2 Dominion also set up a separate refurbishment framework, which is expected to produce spending of £400 million (Project ID: 20236996).
In Inside Housing magazine’s 2022 ranking of the Top 50 developing RSLs, A2 Dominion was ranked 16th after delivering 893 homes. None were for social rent but 137 were for affordable rent and 85 for London Affordable Rent.
The group was ranked ninth for the amount of units that were low cost ownership with 338 units in this category and had the fifth highest amount of completions for London affordable rent. A2 Dominion also had the fifth largest amount of homes sold for open market sale at 332 units.
In terms of pipeline, A2 Dominion was ranked in 24th position with 748 homes expected to complete in 2022/23. Sites had been secured for all these units. The group expected to complete 1,545 units in the next two years and sites were again all secured. Over the next five years, A2 Dominion expects to complete 4,044 homes and had sites for 3,307 of these units.
In the group’s latest accounts for 2022, A2 Dominion delivered 971 new homes (2021: 754 homes).
Glenigan Data
In the 2021 calendar year, A2 Dominion submitted detailed planning applications to build a total of 231 homes (2020: 954 homes).
In the 12 months to Q2 2022, A2 Dominion awarded main contracts for construction work worth £44.3 million (2021: £65.2 million) but the group did not appear in Glenigan’s rankings of the Top 100 construction industry clients.
Conclusion: Ebb and flow
The number of new home delivered by A2 Dominion in 2022 was slightly ahead of the target of 953 homes, which was a decent performance given the problems with labour and materials supply that beset the construction industry.
The group has been awarded £56 million in the Greater London Authority’s 2021-26 grant allocations to support the development of 500 homes including 300 for social rent.
However, the 540 new homes that started on site in 2022 was far smaller than those completed. In 2022, A2 Dominion completed the sale of 505 units for £141.0 million (2021: £44.5 million) but this was also short of the target to sell 579 units for £161.1 million.
Rising interest rates, and inflation in labour and material costs threaten the group’s development schedule in the short term and Glenigan’s research also suggests that this level of delivery may not be continued.
The average main contract awarded to contractors for construction work fall to £11.1 million in the 12 months to Q1 2022 (2021: £16.3 million) and the group’s focus is targeting smaller developments and more apartments, where exposure appears to be growing.
In 2021, Glenigan’s research shows that flats provided 59% of the units in A2 Dominion’s planning programme with the balance some form of house (2020: 56% houses/44% flats) and the average planning application contained 29 homes (2020: 87 homes).
The operating margin slipped back to 20.1% (2021; 22.3%) as the group fell short of its targeted operating surplus, but A2 Dominion is in a financially healthy position and has maintained an A credit rating with Fitch. Net reserves also strengthened significantly to £1,039.7 million (2021: £972.2 million) and A2 Domini9on will remain a major player in terms of social housing delivery.
Winning Work With A2 Dominion
A2 Dominion purchases goods and services in accordance with the UK”s Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Contracts that exceed UK thresholds (currently £213,477 for services and supplies, £5,336,937 for works and £663,540 for ‘light touch’ services) will be advertised via the UK Cabinet Office”s Find a Tender Service (FTS).
Companies interested in supplying goods, services or works to A2 Dominion should visit the group’s tendering portal here.
Key A2 Dominion procurement contacts include:
Director of special projects – Danny Lynch, tel: 07979-854685
Email: danny.lynch@a2dominiongroup.co.uk
Director of land & planning – Simon Potts, tel: 07769-900328