ONE HOUSING, the London based landlord, reported a pre tax loss of £8.6m due to ‘increased fire safety costs’ across its properties.
Inside Housing reported on the loss suffered by One Housing, which manages 17,000 homes in the capital and which saw an £8.6m loss in the year ending March 2020, a ‘dramatic fall’ from a surplus of £12.7m reported the year before. The association said the loss was partially caused by its health and social care services ‘not covering their costs’, but also because of ‘high maintenance costs and a significant increase in fire safety spend’.
It expects to spend £265m on fire safety works alone in the next 10 years, with the organisation – part of the capital’s G15 group of large, London based housing associations – adding that the ‘significant increase’ in fire safety costs went up from £3.6m in 2019 to £8.2m in 2020. Chief executive Richard Hill said that the results were ‘not at a level that would be sustainable if they were repeated year-on-year’, with average service charges increased from £1,284 to £1,499.