A year of growth

Our strong development pipeline, commitment to sustainable practices, high-quality market-leading product, and a focus on delivering best-in-class partnerships position us well for continued growth.  With the country’s need for new housing at record highs and a healthy number of developments scheduled for completion in the next five years, we are well on track to achieve further planned growth.

In the 15-month period, we built a total 2,886 new homes – including 726 for private sale through our own development or in joint venture – generating record revenues of £1.146bn, a 60% increase on the £716m achieved in 2022. This impressive growth is a testament to the resilience of our business model and the hard work of our sales teams. Profit before tax reached £70.1m in the year, which is an excellent result given the economic and political backdrop.

Our Partnerships business continues to excel, securing a significant volume of new projects with local authorities to deliver much-needed mixed-tenure and affordable housing solutions.

Our balance sheet of £368.9m is a real strength, putting us in a position to take advantage of future market opportunities, and we maintain a strong net cash position of £86.4m following our strategic investments in land acquisition and development pipeline expansion over the past 18 months.

Our investments in the year have secured a robust future for the company, with a combined short-term pipeline of 12,900 homes. We strengthened our strategic land portfolio by 3,000 homes, and now have a total of over 14,100 homes under our control across the planning process.

With a significant amount of new business gained over the last 15 months – as you will read in the pages that follow – we can approach the next five-year period with the same determination and drive as we have since our current plan was established in 2021.

We have enjoyed many successes this year in planning despite increasing delays due to the sub-par system in place. However, the work of our development team in navigating challenges has had a positive impact.

In Cambridge, our investment partnership with the City Council goes from strength to strength. Having completed two initial landmark developments, Ironworks and Timber Works, excellent opportunities continue to come forward.

We have launched several exciting new investment partnerships, with Harlow Council, and Sovereign Network Group, to add to our well-established current partnerships. And we have added an array of noteworthy regeneration projects to our existing portfolio, including two in Coventry.

One of these, a regeneration of the southern quarter of the city centre, received executive powers planning approval from Coventry City Council. We are now executing our early-stage requirements and looking forward to starting on site in late 2024.

In London, our growth has been two-fold. We’ve added several major regeneration projects into our pipeline which will come forward over the next decade. More immediately, our partnerships work in the capital has also increased, with our London Partnerships region becoming one of our busiest and fastest growing regions.

We continue to prioritise proper placemaking across our portfolio of developments, with exemplar projects showcasing our place and stewardship strategy coming to fruition, with areas boasting amenities and beautifully realised public realm serving flourishing new communities.

We continue to make good progress towards our main sustainability targets, reflected in the consolidation of our fifth-place position in the annual NextGeneration benchmark, securing our place for a second consecutive year as the leading privately-owned housebuilder in the report.

Through the excellent work our teams do in support of communities in and around our sites, we generated £528m of social value in total across the reporting period. Supporting communities to thrive is vitally important to us and it is encouraging to see how much good work our teams have done to achieve this much increased figure.

Planning delays have beset our Foundation 200 initiative to donate 200 SoloHaus homes to homelessness charities and local authorities by 2025. However, it is encouraging that 143 SoloHaus homes have now been committed to organisations as part of Foundation 200 and I am confident that we will have plans agreed for all 200 homes by the close of 2025.

In November 2023, we celebrated winning WhatHouse? Housebuilder of the Year for the third time in our 24-year history as well as Large Housebuilder of the Year in our first year entering the category. Both awards are a demonstration of how far The Hill Group has come since its inception in 1999.

We have always placed the customer at the very heart of what we do, and so it was pleasing to once again maintain our status as a five-star homebuilder in the HBF’s annual Customer Satisfaction Survey for the seventh consecutive year, with a score in excess of 95%. Having also cultivated a sector-leading score of 4.9 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot, both ratings exist as a benchmark of our efforts to delight customers, not just with the quality of our homes but with superior aftersales care too.

After 12 years of service, we bid farewell to our Group Finance Director, Neil Williams, whose efforts played a part in the growth of Hill. During Neil’s time with us, he saw the company grow significantly. Upon his retirement in December 2023, we promoted Tony Parker, our Residential Finance Director into the role of Group Finance Director. Tony’s extensive experience and deep understanding of our business position him perfectly to further build upon our success.

Our people are the backbone of the company, and their dedication is what truly fuels our achievements. This year, we were proud to see the success of so many of our management trainees who have completed their bachelor’s degrees and progressed into more senior roles. This commitment to fostering talent from within ensures a strong pipeline of future leaders who understand our values and vision.

On a personal note, in July, I was immensely proud to be joined by my family in Windsor to receive the OBE I was awarded at the turn of 2023 in HRH King Charles III’s first New Year’s Honours list. This recognition is a testament to the incredible team of people I have around me. While it carries great significance and motivates me to continue, it also crystallises what Hill’s purpose has always been: to strive for a more equal society through developing sustainable homes where communities can thrive.

As we go to print, we are in the midst of a UK General Election. It’s clear the country needs to deliver many more new homes than has been the case in recent years. We are hopeful any new government takes a progressive approach to our industry, particularly in their thinking towards planning and the delivery of housing across all tenures.

Backed by strong financials, our talented teams, and a growing supply chain, we are well-positioned for an excellent 2024/25, and we expect continued success in the next financial year.

Our focus remains unwavering, and we are confident that our upcoming five-year business strategy, to be finalised later in the year, will propel The Hill Group into the next phase of growth and continued success.

Finally, I extend my deepest gratitude to all our partners and teams.  Their dedication, hard work, and commitment are the true drivers of our success.

Andy Hill OBE
Group Chief Executive