Hyde boss hopeful for Awaab’s Law changes as draft plans ‘impossible to comply with’

The previous government launched a consultation on Awaab’s Law in January.

 

The proposed secondary legislation, which will be part of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act, is in response to a campaign following the high-profile death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak due to mould exposure.

 

A response to the consultation, from either the previous government or the current administration, has yet to be published. 

 

It is expected the government will respond when the secondary legislation is brought forward this autumn.

 

Social Housing also understands that housing minister Matthew Pennycook will meet with figures from the social housing sector over the coming weeks. 

 

Mr Hulme, a former Lloyds Banking Group executive who became Hyde’s CEO in 2022, added: “We’d like to see a more reasonable approach on some of the other metrics and also some of the timescales. 

 

“Access [to homes] is not always easy, particularly when our customers, quite often, are going to work or have the school run.”

 

Mr Hulme’s comments came as the G15 landlord reported that it spent £109.2m – an extra £15m – on repairs and maintenance its last full year to the end of March 2024. 

 

However, he said that only about £2m of this was due to tackling damp and mould.

 

“Despite some of the media stories across the sector, I think most associations are in a world that says damp and mould does happen, it can be harmful to your mental and physical health, but it’s not absolutely rife in our communities,” he said.

 

“I talk to my customers about damp and mould and most of them don’t really recognise the portrayal in the media.” 

 

Awaab’s Law is also being introduced in the private rented sector, but this will come later as it is part of the new Renters’ Rights Bill. 

Meanwhile, ahead of next month’s Budget, Mr Hulme said reports that the government is considering a 10-year rent settlement of Consumer Price Index (CPI) plus one per cent are “welcome”.

 

However, he warned that it would not solve the sector’s immediate financial woes. 

 

“All it does is stabilise our existing business plans, but what it doesn’t do is give us any upside. It doesn’t tackle the ongoing costs of fire safety or get us building. 

 

“If the government genuinely wants us to build more homes, they need to help us make the existing homes we have viable in the longer term.”

 

Instead, he suggested that a rent settlement of CPI plus two per cent would shorten the time for large landlords to “recapitalise and recover” from about 10 years to four years. 

 

However the National Housing Federation, in its Budget submission, has called for CPI plus one per cent over 10 years. 

 

Mr Hulme also spoke about the London-based landlord’s foray into the for-profit arena. 

 

Echoing comments made by Guy Slocombe, chief investment officer at Hyde, at the Labour Party Conference this week, Mr Hulme acknowledged that progress for Halesworth – Hyde’s for-profit joint venture with insurance giant AXA – had been “slower” than anticipated. 

 

Accounts filed at Companies House last month showed that Halesworth – the first for-profit to be launched by a traditional housing association – had yet to record any turnover. Its losses narrowed to £150,620, compared to £675,657 the year before. 

 

“Progress has been slower because we signed the contract for Halesworth in the middle of the Liz Truss Budget,” said Mr Hulme. “I think that was actually quite a remarkable feat, given the chaos. 

 

“It took the markets a bit of time to settle so it has taken longer than we wanted to get ourselves going.” 

 

Halesworth is aiming to deliver 7,500 homes over 10 years. Pushed on this figure, Mr Hulme said: “I think that’s still possible. It could be more, it could be less; it’s down to our shared effort.”

 

Mr Slocombe also said this week that the group was looking at setting up three more for-profits. 

 

Mr Hulme said: “We’ve always imagined that we’d have multiple partners, so I can see three, four, five, six partners over time. But we haven’t got a hard and fast number on it. It’s about who’s the right partner for the right scheme.”

 

In its last full year, Hyde handed over 630 homes, up slightly from 625 the year before. However starts plummeted by 61 per cent to 823, although Mr Hulme said he expects this number to be up in the current year. 

 

Hyde reported a post-tax surplus of £25.9m in its latest financial year, down significantly from the previous year’s figure of £117.5m.

 

The figures were skewed as the group was hit by £39.4m in impairment charges partly due to contractor failures, while in its 2022-23 financial year it was boosted by £57.2m of net gains from swap valuations.

 

Hyde saw its EBITDA MRI figure – a key metric for a landlord’s liquidity – fall to 80.1 per cent, which took into account the impairment. This was down from 100.8 per cent the year before. 

 

However, Mr Hulme said: “As we’ve got a diverse income stream, we can cover that. In the next 24 months, we’ll see that trajectory [on EBITDA MRI] improving.”