Plat Hg Fin 55 Regulatory News (17YE)

29 July 2021

Results for the year ended 31 March 2021

Highlights

· The Covid-19 pandemic dominated much of the year, with our key priority throughout being the safety and wellbeing of our residents and employees

· Whilst the pandemic affected many parts of our operations during quarter one, normal levels of activity were largely restored and our people's dedication and resilience resulted in continued robust financial performance

· Annual turnover increased by 5% to £269.9m (2020: £257.1m)

· Annual operating surpluses increased by 3.9% to £100.5m (2020: £96.7m)

· Reshaping of the board to align capabilities with future Group strategy

· Adopted the Sustainability reporting Standard as a means of articulating Platform's ESG activities and ambitions

· Ratings of A+ were re-affirmed with S&P Global Ratings (S&P) and a new rating, also A+, assigned by Fitch Ratings (Fitch)

· The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) undertook a scheduled governance and viability 'in-depth' assessment and the highest ratings of 'G1/V1' were re-affirmed

· External audit services were tendered, with KPMG successful

· Inaugural £350m (£50m retained) bond issue in quarter two followed by the establishment of a multi-currency, ESG enabled £1 billion Euro Medium Term Note Programme in quarter four

Notes

(1) Surplus excluding gains on disposal of property, plant and equipment and movements in the valuation of investment properties

(2) Regulator for Social Housing Value for Money metric; for more information go to https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/value-for-money-metrics-technical-note/value-for-money-metrics-technical-note-guidance-june-2020

(3) Current tenant arrears includes all general needs tenants (this excludes shared ownership properties)

Elizabeth Froude, Platform's CEO commented:

"This year has been an unprecedented year of trading and as we reflect on our performance for the year I am proud that we have remained true to our strategic direction, whilst protecting our residents, staff and financial strength. It is pleasing to report strong results and our current position of strength places us well to progress our strategic ambitions for the coming year.

"Throughout the year we largely maintained our activities, bringing in new, smarter ways of working to ensure we continued to provide our services in a consistent and safe manner. Some of these will fall away as restrictions ease, but some will provide lasting efficiencies that will help us provide an improved service to customers for years to come.

"I'm delighted to report that during the year we finalised our five year Corporate Strategy for 2021-2026. Our strategy holds customers at the heart of everything we do, ensuring that we help to support our customers by providing services that are accessible at a time and in a manner that works for them. In addition, we look to continue our focus on developing and maintaining affordable housing in a sustainable way, with the target of getting all of our homes to EPC 'C' or better by 2028.

"In order to support the Corporate Strategy we are progressing the roll out of our Treasury Strategy, with the establishment of a £1 billion ESG enabled EMTN programme. This programme will help fund our organisation over the next 3-5 years and we intend to start making use of the programme in the coming months.

"I thank our investor base for their continued support and I am certain the consistency of our results reflects the stability of our organisation and sustainable approach to growth."

Conference call for the credit community to be hosted by

Elizabeth Froude, CEO and Rosemary Farrar, CFO

29 July 2021, 11.00am (UK time)

Disclaimer

These materials have been prepared by Platform Housing solely for use in publishing and presenting its results in respect of the year ended 31 March 2021.

These materials do not constitute or form part of and should not be construed as, an offer to sell or issue, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or acquire securities of Platform Housing in any jurisdiction or an inducement to enter into investment activity. No part of these materials, nor the fact of their distribution, should form the basis of, or be relied on or in connection with, any contract or commitment or investment decision whatsoever. Neither should the materials be construed as legal, tax, financial, investment or accounting advice. This information presented herein does not comprise a prospectus for the purposes of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 as it forms part of domestic law by virtue of the European Union (withdrawal) Act 2018 (the UK Prospectus regulation) and/or Part VI of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

These materials contain statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations, business and future prospects of Platform Housing that are forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, including many factors outside Platform Housing's control. Among other risks and uncertainties, the material or principal factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are: the general economic, business, political and social conditions in the key markets in which Platform Housing operates; the ability of Platform Housing to manage regulatory and legal matters; the reliability of Platform Housing's technological infrastructure or that of third parties on which it relies; interruptions in Platform Housing's supply chain and disruptions to its development activities; Platform Housing's reputation; and the recruitment and retention of key management. No representations are made as to the accuracy of such forward looking statements, estimates or projections or with respect to any other materials herein. Actual results may vary from the projected results contained herein.

These materials contain certain information which has been prepared in reliance on publicly available information (the "Public Information"). Numerous assumptions may have been used in preparing the Public Information, which may or may not be reflected herein. Actual events may differ from those assumed and changes to any assumptions may have a material impact on the position or results shown by the Public Information. As such, no assurance can be given as to the Public Information's accuracy, appropriateness or completeness in any particular context, or as to whether the Public Information and/or the assumptions upon which it is based reflect present market conditions or future market performance. Platform Housing does not make any representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of the Public Information.

These materials are believed to be in all material respects accurate, although it has not been independently verified by Platform and does not purport to be all-inclusive. The information and opinions contained in these materials do not purport to be comprehensive, speak only as of the date of this announcement and are subject to change without notice. Except as required by any applicable law or regulation, Platform Housing expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any information contained herein to reflect any change in its expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such information is based.

None of Platform Housing, its advisers nor any other person shall have any liability whatsoever, to the fullest extent permitted by law, for any loss arising from any use of the materials or its contents or otherwise arising in connection with the materials. No representations or warranty is given as to the achievement or reasonableness of any projections, estimates, prospects or returns contained in these materials or any other information. Neither Platform nor any other person connected to it shall be liable (whether in negligence or otherwise) for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage suffered by any person as a result of relying on any statement in or omission from these materials or any other information and any such liability is expressly disclaimed.

Any reference to "Platform" or "Platform Housing" means Platform Housing Group Limited and its subsidiaries from time to time and their respective directors, board members, representatives or employees and/or any persons connected with them.

Operating review

Introduction

The world has changed beyond recognition in the last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The impacts have been wide reaching, affecting many areas of our operations and people. Our formerly office based colleagues have been working remotely for over a year and those that work directly with customers have had to adjust to a life with appropriate safety measures and more digital ways of working. This year more than ever, the safety and wellbeing of our colleagues, residents and partners has remained our top priority. The dedication of colleagues who have remained hugely committed and worked tirelessly, whilst staying safe, to maintain our operations and serve our customers and communities during this very difficult time has been inspiring.

Our success in responding to the demands placed on us with agility, empathy and speed ensured that we produced strong results for the year. Operating surpluses and margins were ahead of last year. This was partly due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the related lockdown, particularly the reduction in non-essential maintenance, repairs and development activities that temporarily lowered costs in these areas. Overall surpluses were down as a result of pension adjustments and one-off capitalised interest and offices impairment adjustments, with the underlying position ahead of the prior year.

We are hopeful that the coming year will see the end of lockdown restrictions and a return to pre-Covid freedoms. However, we are aware that some practices have changed forever as a result of improvements and digitisations that have been accelerated through the pandemic. For example, we expect more of our colleagues to be working out of our offices, allowing us to reduce our office space and carbon footprint. In addition, as we continue the implementation of our ERP project, PlatformOne, more will be offered digitally for those customers who prefer to access our services in this way. We will continue to make these changes with a strong focus on managing controllable costs, and are committed to maintaining quality, sustainable homes that meet the Platform Standard in accordance with our newly approved Asset Management Strategy.

Service review

Supporting our customers, welfare benefits and arrears

Covid-19 has had significant impacts on the physical, mental and economic welfare of our residents and we have redoubled our support for them during this challenging period. We moved our service offer from 'in person' to digital and this has worked well. As part of this we introduced personalised digital calls and virtual neighbourhood surgeries to ensure our customers are well supported and we continue to be connected. In addition, we have supported customers through the rent collection process by managing accounts proactively and offering advice and guidance to those in financial difficulties. These initiatives have been enhanced by the creation of a well-being fund which disbursed approximately £300,000 in the year, helping over 1,000 customers who were struggling to meet the costs of food, clothing and other essential items. Of this, over £80,000 was donated to foodbanks and charities, with the remainder going directly to customers. The fund will continue to support customers in the year to March 2022, with £1.4 million set aside to help those most in need.

Our efforts to support customers has helped to manage arrears, with overall arrears of 2.70% at 31 March 2021, down from 2.87% at 31 March 2020. Within this, arrears from customers in receipt of Universal Credit ('UC') have reduced significantly from 7.16% to 3.64%. This was supported by a number of Platform-led initiatives, as well as a change by the Department for Work and Pensions, aligning direct payments to when rent is due where previously there was a lag.

Growth in the known number of residents receiving UC continued during the year, with 12,530 in receipt of UC at the year-end, a growth of 43% in comparison to 31 March 2020 (8,743 customers). This is largely due to the on-going migration of eligible customers to UC, however there was an acceleration in March and April 2020 as cases increased due to Covid-19, with an average of 863 customers transitioning for these months in comparison with an average of 267 for May 2020 - March 2021. After full roll out we expect approximately 18,000 of our customers to be in receipt of UC.

Voids management

It was a challenging year to let properties, with the first during lockdown preventing customers from accessing potential new homes and our maintenance teams having to prepare properties for re-letting on a slower basis. Later in the year we saw higher than usual tenancy cessations as people opted to move either back to, or nearer family. We have continued to let our homes throughout, working closely with our Local Authority partners to identify suitable properties for some of the most vulnerable households within our communities. Approximately 95% of all new tenancy sign-ups take place digitally, without the need for any face to face contact with customers, although a more tailored and bespoke service remains available to those who require support. At 31 March 2021 we had 422 vacant homes, down 32% on the prior year figure (31 March 2020: 620), including just over 200 shared ownership homes. Our average re-let period at 31 March 2021 was also down, from 39.9 days to 33.5 days, a 16% reduction. Both measures reflect the hard work of colleagues and success of new ways of working.

PlatformONE

In the year we delivered the initial phases of our post-merger integration ERP project, PlatformONE. This started with the implementation of a cloud based telephony system, allowing the phasing out of land line based systems for both colleagues and our customer hub. This will offer our residents an enhanced service, increased first call resolution and provide us with new insights into customer behaviours.

Our new customers portal, Your Platform, was launched in December 2020 allowing customers to log repair requests, set up direct debits, make payments and update account details at a time that suits them. At the year-end over 5,000 customers had signed up for the service. The next phase of rollout provided case management functionality, allowing the accurate tracking of customer enquiries and enhanced management of anti-social behaviour cases and reporting.

Further functionality is due to be added in the first half of the current year, enhancing lettings, allocations and providing additional sales and lettings functions such as virtual tours. This will all be supported a dedicated Transformational Director who was recruited during the year.

The benefits of the programme will be felt by both customers and the organisation, as automation releases staff capacity in our customer hub and operations teams. We expect to see efficiencies with less resource required to perform functions and more agile customer interactions, leading to increased customer satisfaction.

Asset management

Throughout the first lockdown in quarter one we worked hard to maintain compliance and other essential maintenance activity, whilst protecting our residents and colleagues. We also quickly restarted planned works shortly after the lockdown and have maintained a near to full programme since. Repairs satisfaction remained high throughout averaging 88%, although below our target of 92%. Gas and fire risk assessment compliance was 99.7% and 100% at 31 March 2021 (31 March 2020: 99.6% and 99.0%), with some access issues preventing gas compliance checks. This has been exacerbated by Covid-19.

The expansion of Platform Property Care ('PPC'), our internal maintenance business, continued as planned in the year. PPC now covers our entire portfolio, providing responsive repairs, voids works and gas compliance.

Environmental, social and governance ('ESG')

Many ESG themes are deeply embedded in our sector and indeed, are the foundation of our role providing affordable homes to those not served by the private rental sector. During the year we signed up to be an early adopter of the Sustainability Reporting Standard (the Standard). The Standard will complement our ESG objectives and provide an opportunity to articulate both our activities during the last year and lay out our ambitious plans for the years ahead. Our first report under the Standard can be seen on our website. We are also in the process of creating a sustainable finance framework that we hope to use in the coming months.

A number of initiatives are underway to enhance our environmental performance which will benefit residents through reduced energy bills and fuel poverty. Whilst the business has one of the more energy efficient housing portfolios amongst our peers (with over 70% of stock estimated to have an energy performance certificate ('EPC') rating of C or better at 31 March 2021), we have recently committed to achieving 100% EPC C ratings by 2028, well in advance of the UK Government's target of 2030. This programme is expected to have an aggregate cost of approximately £50 million, which is already provided for in our Long Term Financial Plan. In addition, we are currently assessing our impact on scope one, two and three green houses and the outcome of this analysis will feed into a Group wide Green Strategy that is due to be completed during the year.

We continue to make a strong social contribution. For example, over the 2 years to March 2020 we built more social and affordable homes in England than any other social housing provider. At March 2021, 99% of the homes we owned were let for a social purpose and all of those developed in the year were let at a social or affordable rent, or sold on a shared ownership basis. We let our homes at rents that are below the private rented sector (PRS) to help those most in need to be able to afford a home. Our rents are on average 63% of PRS rents.

Platform is committed to maintaining the highest standards of governance and we are delighted to have concluded the final phase of a focussed Board recruitment campaign in the year. The new members bring specific expertise aligned with the deliverables of our corporate strategy. As well as the Board, the final appointment was made to the Executive Team (Executive Director - Growth and Development) and the Senior Leadership Team was also restructured.

Governance has also been enhanced in the year through the tender of external and internal audit services, with KPMG (external) and Mazars (internal) appointed. At the same time we have had our credit rating affirmed with S&P (A+, stable), a new rating with Fitch published (A+, stable) and had the highest ratings for governance and financial viability affirmed by the Regulator of Social Housing as part of a scheduled in-depth assessment ('G1 / V1').

Development review

Strategy

Platform is committed to tackling the housing shortages across the Midlands and provide enhanced life prospects for more local people by delivering high quality, sustainable, affordable homes. Our development plans are focused on gradually increasing our annual home completions in the coming years. To enable this we are taking a number of steps such as expanding into adjacent geographies and gaining better delivery control via land-led development. To support our strategy, we recruited a new executive director for growth and development in the first quarter. In addition, the development function has been restructured with senior leaders appointed to enhance our land acquisition capabilities, maximise shared ownership sales and optimise the delivery of our build programme in partnership with Homes England and others.

Home building programme

During the year our home building programme was affected by restrictions and disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. This affected work on site, contractors and supporting services, with reduced staff and social distancing slowing progress. We completed 909 homes in the year to 31 March 2021 (31 March 2020: 1,449). These were all for affordable tenures - 28% for social rent, 31% for affordable rent and 41% for shared ownership. Given our current pipeline, we expect to build 1,500 homes in the year to March 2022. At 31 March 2021, Platform owned a total of 46,151 homes (31 March 2020: 45,510).

A significant bid has been submitted to Homes England as part of the 2021-2026 affordable homes grant funded programme. As part of the bid we will develop over 4,500 homes at a total cost of approximately £1.1bn and grant of approximately £250m. All of these homes will be for affordable tenures, with approximately 20% for social rent. In accordance with the requirements of the programme, 50% will provide affordable routes into home ownership and 25% will be built using modern methods of construction. We expect to start on site for schemes in the year to March 2023, with completions coming in years March 2024-26.

In the year to 31 March 2021 development expenditures were £198m, 4.8% lower than the prior year (2020: £208m). The reduction in completions noted above is not mirrored by an equivalent reduction in expenditures because Covid-19 has had a more significant effect on handovers in comparison to construction. In addition, there has been greater investment in purchasing larger sites in the current year in comparison to the prior year.

Governmental and regulatory developments

The Charter for Social Housing Residents: Social Housing White Paper was published in November 2020 and sets out the actions the UK Government will take to ensure that residents in social housing are safe, are listened to, live in good quality homes and have access to redress when things go wrong. Platform have already reviewed services against the requirements of the White Paper and have put together an action plan to ensure that we address any areas covered.

Brexit

The United Kingdom (UK) officially withdrew from the European Union on 31 January 2021. Platform is a UK domiciled organisation, with all current and future turnover expected to come from within the UK. Much of Platform's supplies are also based in the UK, with the majority of materials and labour similarly coming from within the country. As at 31 March 2021, some inflationary pressures have been experienced to development and maintenance costs, with lead times also being extended. However, since the year end this trend has become more pronounced and there now appears to be a clear upward trend in the cost of certain materials. It is difficult to fully determine the impact of Brexit with those of Covid-19 in this regard, but Brexit does appear to be having a contributory impact.

Brexit related risks are included within our risk register and modelled as part of our stress testing, which includes appropriate mitigation strategies should the impacts become material. A new Procurement Strategy has been created that incorporates the potential adverse effects of Brexit.

Financial review

Turnover

In the year to 31 March 2021, total turnover grew 5.0% to £269.9m (2020: £257.1m).

Social housing lettings turnover increased 4.7% to £225.3m (2020: £215.1m), partly reflecting the first rent increase we have been able to make for 4 years implemented in phases from 1 April 2020. The maximum increase permitted was CPI (1.7%, set at September 2019) plus 1%. The effects of the rent increase on turnover was supported by a year on year increase in social housing units, together with an increase in other grants turnover due to furlough receipts, with approximately £1.0m received from the furlough scheme in the first quarter.

Shared ownership first tranche sales performed well in the year, significantly improving once the initial Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were lifted. Turnover increased 15.5% to £32.1m (2020: £27.8m). This reflected a 12.4% increase in sales to 408 homes (2020: 363 homes) and a higher average selling price than in the prior year. With new shared ownership completions of 372 units and transfers into shared ownership from other property categories of a further one unit, unsold shared ownership stock declined from 241 units at 31 March 2020 to 206 units at 31 March 2021.

Total social housing turnover of £259.4m (2020: £246.7m) accounted for 96.1% (2020: 96.0%) of Platform's total turnover in the period.

Operating costs and costs of sale

Total costs increased 5.6% to £169.4m (2020: £160.4m), with operating costs increasing 2.6% to £141.1m (2020: £137.5m) and costs of sale increasing 23.6% to £28.3m (2020: £22.9m).

Social housing lettings operating costs make up most of our costs and they increased by 3.4% to £128.7m (2020: £124.5m), driven by impairment to our offices of £5.9m. This impairment relates to prior years and is the result of aligning the approach to office valuations made by the two legacy organisations, following the amalgamation of subsidiaries in 2019/20. The effect of the impairment was offset by reduced maintenance activity during the Covid-19 lockdowns, particularly in the first quarter. Overall, our per unit social housing costs, calculated using the definition in the Regulator of Social Housing's ('RSH') Value for Money ('VfM') standard were broadly consistent at £2,463 (year to 31 March 2020: £2,458). Further commentary of the VfM metrics is shown below.

Shared ownership cost of sales increased slightly ahead of related turnover due to additional build costs, as cost inflation was affected by high demand after the first national lockdown and materials shortages as a result of Covid-19 affecting supply chains. The developments for sale relate to schemes that were built for, and sold to Local Authority partners at cost. The cost of sales increase is mirrored by an equivalent increase to income for these schemes.

Interest costs

Total net interest payable in the year ended 31 March 2021 increased 8.7% to £54.3m (2020: £50.0m). This was principally due to the consolidation of the Group's interest capitalisation policies (following amalgamation of Waterloo Housing Group Limited and Fortis Living Limited in December 2019). Underlying net interest payable decreased 1.1% to £54.0m (2020: £54.6m) due to refinancing approximately £45m of legacy borrowings over the two years to March 2021 with lower yielding debt from the capital markets.

Surpluses and margins

Maintaining surpluses is crucial to our business model as 100% is reinvested in our homes and services. This combined with funding from financial markets and government grants enables us to invest in existing homes and services and build more affordable homes.

Operating surpluses and margins for social housing lettings improved on the prior year due to the increased turnover and lower costs in our core social housing lettings activities outlined above. Total operating surpluses were also up, but margins were adversely impacted by the one-off write down of a number of offices. The overall surplus after tax that incorporate interest costs and pensions valuations declined to £37.6m (2020: £76.2m), driven by non-cash actuarial pension's adjustments (£36.8m), offices impairment (£5.9m) and the consolidation of the Group's interest capitalisation policies (which included prior year adjustments) (£5.4m). The different measures of surplus and related margins for the current and prior year are set out below.

Notes

(1) Excluding gains on disposal of property, plant and equipment

(2) Excluding actuarial non-cash losses / gains on pension schemes

The table below sets out the key drivers of the variance in Platform's surplus after tax between the year to March 2021 and prior year.

Notes

(1) Before actuarial adjustments to pension schemes

(2) Property sales include shared ownership first tranche sales and developments for sale at cost to Local Authority partners

Treasury review

Financing activity

In July 2020 Platform completed a very successful inaugural own name bond, a £350m (with £50m retained) 35 year issue. The 1.625% coupon and 1.706% yield achieved represent all time record lows for both the social housing sector and all single A rated issuance by corporates in the long-dated sterling bond market.

This was followed with the establishment of a £1 billion multi-currency, ESG enabled, Euro Medium Term Note ("EMTN") programme rated A+ by S&P and Fitch.

Platform prepaid a £20m legacy loan during quarter one on terms that provided a net present value benefit and immediately enhanced its cash flow based coverage ratios.

Debt and liquidity

At 31 March 2021, Platform's net debt was £1,094.4m (31 March 2020: £1,076.2m). Net debt comprised nominal values of £582.2m in bond issues, £80.0m in private placements and £630.7m in term loan and revolving credit facilities, partially offset by £188.6m in cash and cash equivalents and £9.9m in unamortised financing fees and other accounting adjustments.

The average cost and average life of Platform's gross drawn nominal debt at 31 March 2021 was 3.40% and 22 years respectively (31 March 2020: 3.80% and 19 years) with the enhanced metrics driven by the bond issued in July 2020.

Platform had sufficient liquidity as at 31 March 2021 (approximately £700m including undrawn committed facilities and cash and cash equivalents) to meet all its forecast needs until half way through 2023, taking into account projected operating cash flows, forecast investment in new and existing properties and debt service and repayment costs.

Financial ratios

Gearing, measured as the ratio of net debt to the net book value of housing properties, was 41.9% at 31 March 2021 (31 March 2020: 43.5%). Gearing was also comfortably within Platform's golden rule of maintaining gearing below 50% and tightest financial covenant in its banking arrangements (60%).

EBITDA-MRI interest cover for the year to March 2021 was 218% (31 March 2020: 203%). It remains well above Platform's golden rule (120%) and tightest financial covenant in its banking arrangements (110%).

Both ratios have been favourably impacted by lower development and major repairs expenditures as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is expected that both expenditures will increase in the coming year, which will increase gearing and reduce interest cover, but retain headroom to targets.

At 31 March 2021, Platform had over 6,500 unencumbered properties with an estimated value of approximately £460m, providing the business with substantial financial flexibility to raise additional financing given its existing substantial cash and undrawn facilities and current liquidity horizon.

Review of value for money (VfM) performance for year ended 31 March 2021

Achieving VfM in all that we do is an essential part of achieving our charitable objective of providing affordable housing and ensures we make the best use of our resources. Platform assesses its performance against the RSH's VfM metrics for the year in the context of a group of other major social housing providers. This analysis is helpful as these metrics are defined by the RSH and reported on across the sector, providing a greater degree of comparability. Peer group information is currently not available for the year to 31 March 2021, so a comparison against prior year has been undertaken. When we report our half year results we will include a full comparison against our peer group for the year to March 2021.

We have included data published by Platform and 13 other major social housing providers in this assessment and our performance versus this group on the metrics is set out in the table below. The providers included in the analysis are set out in the footnotes to the table.

Notes

(1) Sample of social housing providers includes Platform Housing, Bromford, Clarion, Guinness Partnership, Karbon Homes, Metropolitan Thames Valley, Midland Heart, Notting Hill Genesis, Optivo, Orbit, Peabody, Riverside, Sanctuary and Sovereign Housing. We may evolve the precise make-up of the sample in future

(2) Definitions of these metrics are set out at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/value-for-money-metrics-technical-note/value-for-money-metrics-technical-note-guidance-june-2020

(3) Unweighted or simple average of performance across the selected group of social housing providers

(4) Platform ranking is based on performance against peers as reported in the year to March 2020

(5) A low focus on building non-social housing is viewed as giving a strong ranking due to property market risks related with such activities

(6) CPU: cost per unit; SHL: social housing lettings

This year has been an exceptional year with activity significantly affected by Covid-19. Despite the challenges encountered in the year, we have continued to invest in new and existing homes. Our strong reinvestment has kept pace with the prior year and reflects our commitment to sustained significant, prudent investment, supported by our strong margins and cash flows, competitive cost of debt and grant funding from Homes England. This is core to our key purpose of alleviating the Midlands housing shortage and providing enhanced life prospects for as many local people as possible.

Our investments in new housing properties is shown in new supply metrics, with the supply of new units representing 2% of total units. These metrics also highlight our focus on affordable tenures, with no non-social units developed.

On the two credit metrics monitored by the RSH, we sit broadly at the average point on gearing whilst ranking strongly in terms of EBITDA-MRI interest cover. These measures have both been strengthened during the year as Covid-19 has reduced projected expenditures on maintenance and development activities.

Performance on headline social housing cost per unit, operating margins and return on capital employed are amongst the best in the sector and leading amongst our peers. Performance in these areas is inter-linked, with efficient management structures and geographical stock concentrations helping to keep costs low. The average age of our homes is relatively low at 35 years, which also strengthens performance against these metrics by supporting lower maintenance costs.

Outlook

Platform has delivered a robust financial performance during an unprecedented year of trading. We expect some of the factors that assisted our performance in the year to self-correct, in particular we expect maintenance activity to experience an element of catch up, which will bring margins and key credit metrics into line with pre-Covid performance. These movements are expected to be offset by adverse one-off capitalised interest and offices impairment falling away.

Platform moves forwards with increased focus on sustainability and we are committed to increasing the EPC ratings of all our homes to C and above by 2028. This will cost approximately £50m and has been fully provided for within our Long term Financial Plan. It is not expected to have a material impact on performance. In addition, we have not identified any major refurbishments required to our six buildings that are over 18 meters high.

The UK Government's furlough scheme is due to end in September 2021. This may adversely affect arrears collections if there is a material knock-on effect to employment and the number of Universal Credit claimants.

The end of another UK Government initiative, the 'stamp duty holiday', ended in its current guise in June 2021 and will end altogether in September 2021. This is not expected to have a material impact on Platform's sales activity, because shared ownership sales are usually below the threshold for stamp duty land tax.

In the longer term our resilient financial and operational model leaves us well placed to continue delivering our long-term objectives, centred on the provision and maintenance of high quality, affordable and sustainable housing, alleviating the Midlands housing shortage and providing enhanced life prospects for more local people.

Financial Statements

Legal Status

Platform Housing Group (the parent company) is incorporated in England under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 and is registered with the Regulator of Social Housing as a Private Registered Provider of Social Housing. The registered office is 1700 Solihull Parkway, Birmingham Business Park, Solihull, B37 7YD.

Platform Housing Group comprises the following entities:

Basis of Accounting

The Group's financial statements have been prepared in accordance with applicable United Kingdom Accounting Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (UK GAAP), the Statement of Recommended Practice for registered housing providers: Housing SORP 2018 Update and Financial Reporting Standard 102 ('FRS 102'). Platform Housing Group is a Public Benefit Entity under the requirements of FRS 102. The Group is required under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies (Group Accounts) Regulations 1969 to prepare consolidated Group accounts.

The financial statements comply with the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies (Group Accounts) Regulations 1969, the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 and the Accounting Direction for Private Registered Providers of Social Housing 2019. Following the implementation of FRS 102, housing properties are stated at deemed cost at the date of transition and additions are record at cost. Investment properties are recorded at valuation. The accounts are presented in sterling and are rounded to the nearest £1,000.

As a Public Benefit Entity, The Group has applied the 'PBE' prefixed paragraphs of FRS102.

Statement of Comprehensive Income for the year ended 31 March 2021

The Group's results all relate to continuing activities.

Statement of Financial Position at 31 March 2021

Consolidated Statement of Changes in Reserves

Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows for the period ended 31 March 2021

Social housing properties in management at end of period

\* The equity proportion of a shared ownership property is counted as one unit.

Interest has been capitalised at the rate of 3.4% (2020: 3.8%)

Group