Keepmoat takes £13m hit across West Midlands sites

Housebuilder Keepmoat Homes has seen its revenues rise 31% to £555m but pre-tax profits drop by £12m while also revealing a £13m hit on losses on sites across the West Midlands.

For the year to the end of March, the firm’s revenues increased by 31.3% to £555.6m (FY17: £423.2m) and its pre-tax profits stood at £13.5m, down from £25.4m in the previous year.

But in its annual report, Keepmoat Homes said there had been £13.2m of losses on sites across the West Midlands, where there were “significant trading issues” including cost over-runs that were not adequately managed. Due to this, the West Midlands office was closed. There were also £4.2m restructuring costs during the year.

During the year, the Doncaster-headquartered firm completed the sale of its regeneration division to Engie for £313m.

It sold 3,717 homes, an increase of 27.1% on the previous year (FY17: 2,924).  Average selling price increased from £145,000 to £149,000.

The number of plots within its land pipeline increased by 13% to 32,331.

James Thomson, chief executive officer of Keepmoat Homes, said: “The last 12 months have been a transformational period for Keepmoat Homes. In the year to 31 March 2018 we delivered 3,717 much needed high quality new homes, 793 more than the year before, and we saw an increase in our revenues of 31.3% to £555.6m. Our new financial year has started well and we plan to build over 4,000 much needed new homes this year.

“Following the sale of Keepmoat’s Regeneration division to Engie, which completed on 30 April 2017, Keepmoat Homes is now focused entirely on delivering more of the new homes the UK needs with greater speed and remaining the UK’s leading partnership homebuilder. We are also committed to a multi-tenure strategy with our partners including Homes England, local authorities, registered providers and the Private Rented Sector (PRS).

“We are pleased to partner with ilke Homes, one of the leading modular homes businesses in the UK. The industry is increasingly looking at modern methods of construction (MMC) and we welcome the Government’s support for modular construction to drive the delivery of additional homes over and above what the industry can currently build.

“With the help of ilke we delivered the first two homes using MMC at our Carr Lodge development in Doncaster and we have a healthy pipeline being built in partnership with ilke to follow. We continue to work closely with their team to create a product tailored to the aspirations of first time buyers and also to the requirements of our public sector partners.

“Over 80% of our current developments are on brownfield land. We are the UK’s leading brownfield builder and we are pleased to see an increasingly sophisticated approach to brownfield development from the public sector. Our brownfield delivery partnerships with local authorities in Leeds, Sheffield, Rotherham and Herefordshire provide model approaches for others to follow.”

Click here to sign up to receive our new South West business news...
Close