We’re pleased to share that Abri has experienced another year of strong performance as we continue to build communities and empower lives.
In the 2021/2022 financial year we built 850 new homes and became a strategic partner of Homes England. We’re focused on continuing to work in partnership with others and deliver even more much needed affordable homes in 2022/2023.
As well as new homes, our priority is ensuring all our customers have a safe and warm home. Over the next five years we’ll be investing £215m to maintain the quality of our existing homes, improving building and fire safety and making them more energy efficient.
Listening to and working in partnership with our customers and colleagues is paramount to our success. In the last year we introduced a revised housing services strategy, adopting a local approach to service delivery that empowers our colleagues to deliver great customer service. To support this, we rolled out Housing Professionals of the Future, a framework aligned with the Chartered Institute of Housing’s Professional Standards to support our colleagues to be their best.
Our key focus remains on helping customers our customers through the current cost of living. Last year, our Tenancy Support Services secured £3.2m of income for our customers, our Employment Services helped 500 people find a job, and we continued to invest in our communities. We will be redoubling our efforts to ensuring our customers sustain their tenancies through our dedicated teams and further community investment.
At Abri we’ve also enhanced our commitment to tackling climate change, launching our Environment and Climate strategy, which maps out our route to becoming net-zero by 2050. We also formed the Greener Futures Partnership, alongside four other leading Housing Associations, to improve the sustainability of our homes.
Gary Orr, Group Chief Executive, said:
“Creating thriving communities and empowering lives is at the heart of Abri. That commitment was the foundation on which we built our partnership almost three years ago, and I’m delighted to see the benefits being realised.
“We believe everyone should have the right to a safe, warm and sustainable home. As a strategic partner of Homes England, through our joint ventures, and with significant investment into our existing homes, we are well on our way to making this a reality.
“Delivering great customer service means listening to our customers. In the last year we’ve taken the time to lay the foundations of a culture that prioritises our customers needs and enables our colleagues to meet these. Right now, our focus remains on supporting our customers facing the pressure of the cost of living.
“I’m proud of the work achieved in the last financial year and I look forward to seeing what more we can achieve for our customers and communities in the next.”
In the 2021/2022 we retained our top rating with the Regulator for Social Housing and our A3 Moody’s credit rating underlining our financial resilience and sound governance. We became an early adopter of the Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing and issued our first Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report.
