Mj Gleeson Plc Annual Report and Accounts 2020 Accounts and Report Annual Plc Gleeson Mj
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MJ GLEESON PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2020 MJ Gleeson plc Annual Report and Accounts 2020 INTRODUCTION MJ Gleeson plc specialises in low-cost house building and strategic land promotion St. James Court, Accrington, Lancashire Strategic Report GOVernance Report Financial Statements OTHer INFormation Financial Highlights Contents REVENUE Strategic Report Financial Highlights 1 What We Do 2 £147.2m How We Operate 4 Chairman’s Statement 6 2019: £249.9m Market Overview 8 Chief Executive’s Statement 10 CASH & CASH EQUIVALENTS Business Model 14 Strategy 16 Business Review 18 £76.8m Sustainability Report 22 2019: £30.3m Non-financial Reporting 28 Stakeholder Engagement 29 PROFIT BEFORE TAX Financial Review 38 Risk Management 42 £5.6m Governance Report 2019: £41.2m Chairman’s Introduction 48 The Board 50 NET ASSETS PER SHARE Nomination Committee Report 56 Audit Committee Report 58 Remuneration Committee Report 64 Annual Report on Remuneration 67 366.1p Directors’ Report 76 2019: 373.5p Statement of Directors’ Responsibilities 79 EARNINGS PER SHARE Financial Statements Independent Auditors’ Report 82 Consolidated Income Statement 88 Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive 8.1p Income 88 2019: 61.0p Statement of Financial Position 89 Statement of Changes in Equity 90 RETURN ON CAPITAL EMPLOYED Statement of Cash Flows 92 Notes to the Financial Statements 93 3.1% Other Information 2019: 25.9% Five Year Review 115 Further Information 116 Corporate Directory 116 Shareholder Information 116 Financial Calendar 116 Cover: Beatrice, Kings Park, Doncaster, South Yorkshire MJ Gleeson PLC Annual Report and Accounts 2020 1 WHAT WE DO Building Homes. Changing Lives. We build affordable, quality homes. Where they are needed, for the people who need them most. We source We develop low-cost sites unused land We acquire land often in areas where no one else Our developments are located in areas where wants to build and that helps to keep our land there is often a need for regeneration; typically costs low. This is an important first step in making brownfield sites that would otherwise remain our homes affordable. We are increasing the derelict or unused. Last year we invested number of sites in our existing areas and approximately £130m in our development expanding into neighbouring regions such as sites, creating attractive and well-planned Lincolnshire and the West Midlands. new homes for sale. NUMBER OF PLOTS IN THE PIPELINE NUMBER OF ACTIVE BUILD SITES 13,801 71 2019: 13,575 2019: 69 Photo: Photo: St. James Court, Accrington, Lancashire Carlisle Park, Swinton, South Yorkshire 2 MJ Gleeson PLC Annual Report and Accounts 2020 Strategic Report GOVernance Report Financial Statements OTHer INFormation We build We create affordable homes communities The cost of buying a Gleeson home is less than We sell our homes to local people and many of renting for most buyers and can be as low as our buyers already live close to one of our sites. £59 per week for one of our two-bed semi- We build modern brick homes using local detached homes. More than 4 out of 5 of our suppliers and employ local trades on our sites, customers are first-time buyers and their bringing jobs and investment to the community. mortgage commitments remain sensibly low at We care about creating safe and attractive less than 2.9 times household income versus the communities where people want to live. market average of 3.3 times. COMMUNITIES DEVELOPED AVERAGE SELLING PRICE OVER LAST 10 YEARS £130,900 150+ 2019: £128,900 Photo: Photo: Carrwood Park, Bradford, West Yorkshire First-time buyers, Clarence Court, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham MJ Gleeson PLC Annual Report and Accounts 2020 3 HOW WE OPERATE Building the foundations for growth MJ Gleeson plc specialises in low-cost house building and strategic land promotion. We have two distinct but complementary businesses: building low-cost homes in the North of England and the Midlands and strategic land promotion in the South of England. BY DIVISION LOCATION OF SITES Revenue £6.3m £147.2m Total £140.9m Operating profit £0.2m £5.9m* Total £9.0m Gleeson Homes Gleeson Strategic Land * After Group costs of £3.3m 4 MJ Gleeson PLC Annual Report and Accounts 2020 Strategic Report GOVernance Report Financial Statements OTHer INFormation GLEESON HOMES We build affordable, quality homes. Where they are needed, for the people who need them most. By establishing strong relationships with local authorities, Gleeson Homes acquires and redevelops sites where there is an obvious need for social and economic regeneration and builds new homes at affordable prices. We deliver a unique social benefit by helping people to escape from housing poverty caused by the “rent trap” and into home ownership and wealth creation. Our homes are affordable enough to be sold to a couple on the current National Living Wage and mortgage repayments are usually less than local council house rents. We invest in the areas in which we build, ensuring that we leave a thriving community once our developments are complete. HOMES SOLD 1,072 2019: 1,529 GLEESON STRATEGIC LAND We promote land, enhancing its value by securing mainly residential planning consent. We focus on sites in the South of England that are appealing to a wide range of developers. Gleeson Strategic Land has a team of highly skilled planning, technical and land specialists who identify development opportunities and work with stakeholders to promote the land through the planning system. We have a long history of delivering value through securing planning consents that not only achieve the best value but ultimately help to deliver attractive residential developments in areas where housing demand is high. We invest intelligently in our land portfolio and work closely with landowners, land agents, local authorities and communities to secure residential planning STRATEGIC LAND consents that are sustainable and sensitive to local PORTFOLIO (PLOTS) needs. 23,314 2019: 21,730 MJ Gleeson PLC Annual Report and Accounts 2020 5 CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT I would like to thank our employees, subcontractors, suppliers and customers for their truly exceptional support in response to the Covid-19 crisis. This has been invaluable in helping us to maintain the continuity of our business. Dermot Gleeson Chairman Gleeson Homes’ sites and sales offices were Help to Buy continues to assist first-time buyers into home ownership and we welcome the announcement of the closed from 25 March 2020 until 14 May 2020 Government’s decision to extend the deadline for buyers using when we commenced a phased restart. This the existing scheme to 28 February 2021. The new scheme, which resulted in a 30% drop in the number of comes into force from 1 April 2021, will be limited to first-time buyers and subject to regional price caps. 84% of our customers completions during the year to 1,072 new are first-time buyers and the selling price of almost all of our houses homes (2019: 1,529) and also in a reduction in is below the proposed caps. the number of new sites opened. Around two-thirds of our customers are key workers and in recognition of the extraordinary contribution they are making we I am delighted to report that Gleeson Homes has started the new introduced the Gleeson Key Worker Priority Programme, which financial year with a record forward order book and a record level offers such workers a range of attractive benefits. of work in progress. The Board has therefore reaffirmed its target that Gleeson Homes will reach 2,000 unit completions per annum The strategic land market is seeing demand returning as medium in 2022. and large-sized housebuilders seek to replace completed developments with good-quality consented sites. Since his appointment as Chief Executive Officer in 2019, James Thomson has focused on ensuring that Gleeson Homes has Our people the platform needed to support our growth ambitions and has We welcomed the support offered to businesses by the overseen significant changes across our organisational, build Government’s Job Retention Scheme. 456 employees (76%) of our process and sales structures. We used the period of shutdown to employees were furloughed, all of whom have now returned review the division’s processes, resulting in further improvements to work. to both our health and safety regime and our operational efficiency in a number of areas. The Board and senior management accepted temporary salary reductions ranging from 5% to 30% so that more junior colleagues Gleeson Strategic Land was also adversely affected by the could continue to receive full or near-full pay. I am very grateful pandemic, which caused the virtual closure of the land market. for the commitment to the Company that has been shown by all However, a number of significant land sales that had been planned our employees during what has been an exceptionally challenging for delivery during the final quarter of the year are now expected to period. complete in the current financial year. This year we launched our “Vision, Mission and Values” initiative in Market which our employees sought, very successfully, to articulate and Despite the continuing pandemic, the fundamentals of the housing embed the key values that they believe should drive the Company’s market remain strong. Demand for affordable new homes remains behaviour. The detailed outcome of this important exercise is set out in this Annual Report which is subject to approval by high and we continue to see selling prices above pre-Covid-19 shareholders at the AGM. levels. Mortgage finance continues to be available, supported by historically low interest rates. The results of our latest employee survey show that the level of employee engagement and satisfaction with the Company Many families living in rented accommodation re-evaluated their is very high.