We continue to deliver a strong set of financial results posting improved net surplus and key operating margins for the third year running fulfilling our purpose to enable existing and future customers to thrive.

Despite being impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, rising inflation and significant volatility around labour supply and materials, the 2021 to 2022 annual report confirms that net surplus increased to £79m (£62m in 2021). On top of that, social housing and overall operating margins rose to 36% and 32% respectively (35% and 31% in 2021).

Read our Annual Report and Accounts 2021 to 2022.

There were also further successes in core areas such as:

A housebuilder of choice

  • We built 1,224 new homes during the year, up from 902 in the previous year, including a record 253 by our in-house construction team meaning 1 in 5 of our new homes were built by our in house construction team for our customers. Leading sector magazine Inside Housing also named us the top builder of social rented homes in England for the second year running, completing 444 in total
  • We extended our Homes England strategic partnership with £240m of grant funding helping us to cement our commitment to homes using modern methods of construction (MMC) and an additional 4,000 homes overall in the next five years

Investing in our customers

  • Despite average customer advocacy reducing from 85% to 79% primarily due to a backlog of repairs which we expect will be back to normal levels by summer 2022, our work in the community continued through our network of neighbourhood coaches. They are now being supported by the rollout of a new specialised income team providing customers with more tailored financial support given the cost of living crisis
  • Our approach to community investment was extended following some impressive results in Gloucestershire and we also made headway in our work to tackle homelessness, joining the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance and launching new policies and toolkits

A sustainable Bromford

  • We agreed to bring forward the date to achieve SAP rating C for all of our homes by two years to 2028 and are including the full cost of achieving net zero carbon by 2050 in our 2022 long term financial plan
  • We completed the drawdown of two deferred private placement transactions which supported our strong levels of liquidity, having £641m available at 31 March 2022 (2.3 times our prudent liquidity policy). Pleasingly, we ended the year with sector leading dual credit ratings and reaffirmation of our G1/V1 governance ratings through the Regulator for Social Housing

Seizing opportunity for change

  • Strengthening our efforts to attract the best future talent to Bromford, we launched our new graduate programme and committed to having apprenticeships make up at least 5% of our business within five years

Chief executive Robert Nettleton said: “We’re pleased to report a strong set of financial results in a year when the Covid pandemic continued to provide many challenges for our customers, colleagues and stakeholders. Our primary focus throughout the year continued to be the safety and wellbeing of our customers and colleagues.

Paul Walsh, our chief finance officer, added: “Against the backdrop of an increasingly difficult operating environment, we continue to deliver a strong set of financial results within the parameters of our Financial Framework. Our strong surplus allows us to self-fund a significant proportion of the investment in our new and existing homes and we maintained net arrears of less than 2% through the close working with our customers from our unique neighbourhood coach and income management teams, which we know will become even more paramount in the year ahead.”

Read our Annual Report and Accounts 2021 to 2022.

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