Last updated 9 August 2022
Peabody Trust
The Peabody Trust was founded in 1862 by Victorian social reformer George Peabody and the first development in London’s Spitalfields opened in 1864. In 1900, the Peabody Trust received its Royal Charter and the group was incorporated by a private Act of Parliament in 1948.
On April 1 2022, Peabody and Catalyst Housing merged with the latter becoming a subsidiary of the former. A full merger is due to be completed by April 2023.
The enlarged Peabody Group is responsible for 104,000 homes and around 220,000 customers across London and the home counties and employs 4,000 people. The group has a development pipeline of 6,000 homes and will have combined turnover of more than £1 billion.
Financials
In the 2022 financial year, turnover at Peabody rose to £664 million (2021: £630 million) and the operating surplus increased to £247 million (2021: £188 million). The surplus for the year rose to £150 million (2021: £110 million).
In the 2022 financial year, turnover at Catalyst rose to £299 million (2021: £298 million) and the operating surplus increased to £81 million (2021: £66 million). The surplus for the year rose to £171 million (2021: £34 million).
To view the financials for Peabody, visit the group’s website here. To view the financials for Catalyst Housing, visit the group’s website here.
Operations
Peabody develops social and affordable rental homes, sheltered housing, shared ownership and homes for private sale. Of the current development pipeline, 78% of planned new homes will be affordable.
Peabody is working on a number of major developments including the South Thamesmead development in Bexley, which will deliver 1,600 homes by 2029 (Project ID: 21046906). The group has a number of major developments in the pipeline, including Project Holloway in north London, which is due to start in 2023 and will produce 985 new homes (Project ID: 18307662) and Dagenham Green, which is also scheduled to start in 2023 and will deliver 3,502 new homes and a school (Project ID: 21117884).
Peabody works in conjunction with private developers such as Bellway and Faithdean and is also one of only two housing providers in the United Kingdom to achieve gold in the Sustainable Homes Index For Tomorrow benchmarking scheme.
Catalyst is member of the G15 group of the largest developing registered social landlords and is working on a number of major schemes such as Capital Interchange Way, which started in 2022 and will generate 420 flats in Brentford, west London (Project ID: 16414041), and has major schemes in the pipeline including a redevelopment of St Ann’s General Hospital in Haringey, north London that is scheduled to start in 2023 and produce 960 new homes (Project ID: 20501594).
In Inside Housing magazine’s 2022 ranking of the 50 biggest developing housing associations, Peabody was ranked in 18th position after completing 848 homes in 2021/22. Of this total, 291 were for social rent, 100 for affordable rent and 14 for London affordable rent. Catalyst was in 30th position after completing 558 homes. Of this total, 33 were for social rent and 434 for affordable rent.
Peabody made the third largest amount of starts on new homes – 1,669 – and was ranked seventh in terms of the largest proportion of units completed for social rent at 34.3%. Peabody was also ranked eighth in terms of the number of the number of homes completed for outright sale at 224 units.
In 2021, Peabody spent £355 million on new homes (2021: £304 million) and completed on 866 new units. Catalyst delivered 525 new homes in 2021.
Glenigan Data
In the 2021 calendar year, Peabody submitted detailed planning applications to build 2,623 homes (2020, 1,750 homes) and Catalyst applied to build 556 homes (2020: 518).
In the 12 months to Q2 2022 calendar year, Peabody awarded main contracts for £27.2 million (2021: £33.9 million), while Catalyst let work totalling £93.0 million (2021: £114 million).
Conclusion: Big new player on the block
The merger of two major registered social landlords is expected to produce a behemoth that will build 3,000 homes per year, yet in 2021 Peabody’s development pipeline retreated to £1.1 billion (2020: £1.4 billion), while Catalyst fell short of its development target of 677 homes, as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic delayed work and completions.
To reach such an ambitious target will require a major ramping up of work beyond the 500 homes that Catalyst alone proposes to build annually over the next two years, but Glenigan’s data suggests that the two group’s planning pipeline can support this ambitious expansion.
In Glenigan’s ranking of registered social landlords by planning activity in 2021, Peabody was ranked first and Catalyst in 11th position. The newly combined group had a 2021 planning programme of 3,179 units, which was double the size of second placed Clarion.
There were some differences between the two programmes. Peabody was focused solely on building new homes in larger developments with the average proposal containing 525 units. In contrast, 11% of the units proposed by Clarion were apartments and the average planning application contained 139 homes.
However, Peabody is progressing with smaller schemes with the average contract awarded valued by Glenigan at £5.4 million (2021: £4.2 million), while the median job let by Catalyst was worth £23.3 million (2021: £22.8 million).
Neither group featured in Glenigan’s rankings of the construction industry’s Top 50 clients but entry seems likely in the near future given the size of both company’s development plans. The two groups will not merge officially until April 2023 and there is the likelihood of both teething problems and the impact of significantly increased prices for construction materials and labour rates on the feasibility of proposed developments. This may hold back work in the short term but further out the enlarged Peabody Group is set to become of the largest developing housing associations in the UK.
Winning Work With Peabody
Peabody uses a procurement portal called Delta eSourcing to secure contracts and issue tenders. Delta eSourcing is backed by BiP Solutions. New suppliers can register here. To contact Peabody’s procurement team, contact procurement.enquiries@peabody.org.uk
Catalyst Housing also uses Delta eSourcing and suppliers can register here.
Key Peabody procurement contacts include:
Peabody head of new business – Phil Church, tel: 020-7021-4444
Peabody head of new business – Hannah Edlmann, tel: tel: 020-7021-4444
Catalyst procurement manager – Kim Russell, tel: 0300-456-2099