Innes' message to employees - Interim results 2023-24

 Good morning all, 

It’s that time of the year again where Martin, Iain and I are in London giving an update to investors and the market on the first 6 months of the financial year (June – November 23) and I am pleased to share that we have performed in line with our expectations, which reflects the challenging market conditions. 

Our key focus for the first half of the year has been to bring cash into the business to help reduce our net debt. We have a very healthy land bank and that puts us in a position of being able to sell land without heavily impacting our future pipeline.

I’m glad to say we’ve already began delivering on this with three land agreements in place, totalling £18m, and we are in advance discussions regarding further profitable land sales.

We have had some excellent sales coming through since mid-January. This indicates that people are now ready to buy again, and we have a great selection of high quality, energy efficient homes, in fantastic locations across Scotland, to meet their needs. 

Similarly, appetite for affordable housing has greatly increased and in the first half of the year we have signed contracts for the delivery of affordable housing worth around £40m with more to come. 

Whilst we are encouraged by these positive steps, until the uncertainty is fully behind us, we need to keep doing what we are doing to secure sales and carefully control costs.

As I continue to say, the fundamentals of the Scottish Housing Market, and of our business, remain very strong. We have done a good job strengthening our position and we remain confident in our prospects for the years ahead.

Please read the interim results for yourself, here, and the presentation we’re delivering to investors this week here.

As always, thank you for all that you do for the company, our customers and your colleagues.

Innes