Metropolitan on track to deliver 1,000 new homes a year

The housing association has grown its development pipeline, which is now on track to deliver new homes at a rate of 1,000 a year by 2017/18.

Metropolitan recorded a record surplus of £77 million (2015: £60 million) and an increased operating margin of 38.4% (2015: 36.9%) for 2015/16.

During the year, Metropolitan invested £114 million (2015: £113 million) in buying land and building new homes. It delivered 371 new homes (2015: 456) and increased its development pipeline by 27% to 3,410 units by the end of the year (2015: 2,690).

Brian Johnson, Chief Executive of Metropolitan (pictured above), said, “This has been an excellent year for Metropolitan. We issued our first public bond and stepped up our investment plans, increasing our development pipeline with the aim of delivering more than a thousand homes every year by 2017/18.

“Surplus and margins are up on 2015 as we continue to focus on cost control, process efficiency and value for money. With our new in-house repairs contractor, Metworks, and a number of systems improvements implemented this year, we remain confident in the outlook for 2016/17 and, with more than £550 million of available funds, we are well placed to deliver on our growth strategy.”