Last updated 12 September 2022
Places for People
Places for People is one of the UK’s largest registered social landlords and manages around 231,000 homes and 120 leisure centres. The group employs around 5,700 people, turns over nearly £850 million a year and has a major development pipeline with plans to build nearly 17,000 new homes over five years.
Financials
In the 2022 financial year, turnover at Places for People rose to £849.9 million (2021: £816.5 million) and operating profits increased to £209.5 million (2021: £206.7 million). Before tax, profits slipped back to £76.9 million (2021: £66.0 million).
To view the financials for Places for People, visit the group’s website here.
Operations
Places for People has its headquarters in London and operates in affordable and supported housing and assets and investments, developments, property and place management, leisure management and fund management.
In 2018/19, the group was selected as a strategic partner in Homes England’s programme delivering homes for affordable rent, social rent and shared ownership and was allocated £74.0m in funding to help deliver 2,603 homes. By the end of March 2022, 1,042 affordable homes has been built as part of this partnership and work had started on started a further 637 homes.
In September 2021, Homes England awarded Places for People a further £250m in grant funding to build a further 4,400 affordable over the next seven years and 745 affordable homes had been delivered by the end of 2021/22 using grant from Homes England and other funding streams (Project ID: 21235829).
Places for People has a strategic partnership with commercial housebuilder Countryside Properties to deliver 10,000 new homes (Project ID: 20488419). In April 2021, the two parties signed their first development agreement. The £230m scheme in Lower Herne Village in Kent, will deliver 800 new homes, including 240 affordable properties for rental and shared ownership, together with community facilities, new parkland and allotments on the site of the former Strode Farm. The first phase to deliver 83 houses and 58 flats will start at the end of 2022 (Project ID: 21357307).
Places for People also works with local authorities such as Hampshire County Council, contractors including Morgan Sindall subsidiary Lovells and other private sector developers, including City & Provincial. The two groups are jointly developing plans for the £589 million Gilston Garden Town in Essex, which will produce 8,500 new homes (Project ID: 17024142).
Other major developments being led by Places for People include a £51.2 million scheme to deliver 340 homes in Welwyn Garden City (Project ID: 22260835)
In the 2021/22 financial year, turnover from non-social housing development fell to £128.2 million (2021: £159.1 million).
In Inside Housing’s 2022 survey of the Top 50 developing registered social landlords, Places for People was ranked in third position after completing 1,775 homes. This total included 266 units for social rent, 339 for affordable rent and 119 for intermediate rent. In terms of units starting on site, Places for People was ranked in second place after beginning construction on 1,957 new homes.
The group also had the second largest development pipeline with 1,981 units due to complete in 2022/23 with sites secured for 1,064 of these homes. Over the next two years, Places for People expected to complete 5,2004 homes and plots had been secured for 2,385 of these units. Over the next five years, Places for People has plans to build 16,890 and plots for 3,265 of these homes.
Glenigan Data
In the 12 months to Q2 2022, Places for People awarded main contracts for £13.3 million (2021: £10.0 million).
In the 2021 calendar year, Places for People submitted 6 detailed planning applications (2020: 1) to build a total of 1,041 new homes (2020: 65).
Conclusion: In second spot?
By most measures, Places for People is the UK’s second largest registered social landlord, lagging behind only industry titan London & Quadrant. Turnover recovered in the latest trading year but still remains slightly below the figure achieved two years earlier.
Places for People looks set to significantly expand its development operations over the next few years with plans for nearly 17,000 homes by 2027. There is significant exposure to the open market. In 2021/22, 39% (690 units) of the completions at Places for People were homes for open sale, which was the second largest amount in the UK according to Inside Housing magazine.
Places for People has a significant pipeline of new homes being developed through the planning system. The group was ranked in fifth position in Glenigan’s rankings of the Top 50 housing associations by planning pipeline and the focus was on larger developments comprised of apartments. There was again no applications to build houses in the 2021 planning programme and the average submission contained 174 units (2020: 65).
The group invested £133.1 million in its existing estate (2021: £117.1 million) including £65.1 million on capital improvements and £44.5 million on reactive and responsive maintenance. The average contract awarded to external contractors was just £3.3 million in the 12 months to Q2 2022 (2021: £5 million) according to Glenigan’s research.
The retirement after 24 years of chairman David Cowans is a big mark in the development of the group but he left Places for People in a strong financial position. During the 2021/22 financial year, the group successfully issued a 14 year, £300 million sustainability bond, The group has fixed assets valued at £5.1 billion (2021: £4.9 billion) and reserves have strengthened considerably to £790.3 million (2021: £700.4 million)
Winning Work With Places for People
Places for People has set up the Procurement Hub to recruit contractors to deliver work. In 2022, the Procurement Hub signed up Farrans, Willmott Dixon, and Robertson to deliver projects through a six-year development framework that is expected to produce spending of £2.5 billion (Project ID: 21442290). Details on the Procurement Hub can be found here.
Details on Places for People’s tender process and its dealings with suppliers can be found here.
Key Places for People procurement contacts include:
Director of Procurement – Alan Heron, tel: 01772-667002
Alan.heron@placesforpeople.co.uk
Head of Brand – Laura Colledge, tel: 01772-667002