Chief Executive's introduction

Review of the year

On 12 October 2009 Affinity Sutton came together operationally as one business. All services to Broomleigh, Downland and William Sutton Homes residents are now provided by Affinity Sutton. Our decision to restructure was driven by a number of factors. We want to be in a position to deliver uniformly excellent services by creating efficiencies and making the most of opportunities. And we want to be locally responsive to the needs of our residents around the country.

But one thing has not changed. Our social business ethos means we look continuously for ways to improve resident satisfaction and invest our surpluses in what we believe in most: maximising life chances for our residents and creating places for communities to thrive. This has been more important than ever as the economic recession has tightened its grip.

Our focus on sound underlying financial performance has put us in a strong position to achieve our goals. This has been strengthened further by the exceptional levels of profit from sales even in the face of continued economic challenges, and a period of sustained low interest rates reflecting base rates at 0.5% throughout the year.

In today’s challenging environment, we must continue looking at ways to operate as efficiently as possible so that we can keep on providing outstanding value for money to our residents. This was recognised in the Audit Commission’s recent rating of William Sutton’s performance on this criterion as ‘strengths considerably outweighing weaknesses’.

Affinity Sutton generates and needs substantial surpluses, all of which are re-invested in improving our housing, in new homes and in our communities. A healthy financial position means we can continue to thrive as an independent business seizing opportunities for social results.

Much of our surplus has already been invested in lasting works to our residents’ homes through a programme of major repair and improvements. Where current standards fall below our expectations we are developing a programme of regeneration that will go beyond the Decent Homes Standard. This will be expensive and will need to be undertaken without the benefit of grant funding.

Our 55,000 homes do not exist in a vacuum but are part of wider communities. In recognition of this, I am delighted to announce that during the year, we set up the Affinity Sutton Community Foundation. Our exceptional financial results have enabled us to endow this new charitable foundation with £19 million of free funds that it will invest to generate income to support our work in communities. This reinforces our commitment to this important area of activity and will help us to build on our excellent track record to date.

We recognise that the independent housing sector and Affinity Sutton are increasingly engaged in more volatile activity. This is designed to generate profits to subsidise our core social objectives, and in particular to enable us to continue to build new homes for affordable rent. We expect this exposure to increase as pressure on public finances reduces public funding ever further, but it presents new challenges and risks which require an ever stronger financial base. We are well placed to take up this challenge and can use our influence at a national and local level for the benefit of our organisation, our sector and our existing and future residents.

Keith Exford
Group Chief Executive