Choice Annual Report 2025 flipbook - Flipbook - Page 2
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Choice Annual Report
Foreword
Group Chair
Group Chief Executive
2024/25
Welcome to the Choice Group
Annual Report for the year ended
31st March 2025.
It has been another year of progress
grounded in our charitable purpose to
bring benefits to our tenants and their
communities. Reflecting the priorities of our
Group Strategy to 2027, we have focused
on providing great homes, supporting our
communities to thrive and empowering our
people. We aim to be a ‘force for good’ for
society by being caring, committed and
creative.
In the prevailing context of a continuing
shortfall of housing supply, we are delighted
that Choice started 437 and completed 364
new social homes in 2024/25. Yet again
we were the leading developing Housing
Association across the country. We are
grateful to our partners in DfC and NIHE who
secured additional funding for the Social
Housing Development Programme (SHDP)
through the year. We were also delighted
to see housing included as a priority in the
Programme for Government. New social
homes built under SHDP are to a very high
standard and contribute directly to tackling
homelessness, fuel poverty and climate
change.
Our wholly-owned subsidiaries trading under
the Maple & May brand, continue to lead the
sector locally in mixed tenure developments.
A number of cross-tenure flagship projects
launched in 2024/25 including schemes at
Park Avenue and Kings Hall, Belfast and at
Rosses Gate in the North West. The Kings
Hall apartment development is the first of
its kind in Northern Ireland with social and
private rented tenants sharing the same
building with shared amenities and services.
We were delighted that Maple & May Limited
has been selected by DfC to pilot a new
Intermediate (mid-market) rental product,
which will launch in 2025/26.
We continue to invest heavily in our existing
properties, ensuring that our tenants feel
at home in high quality, safe and secure
accommodation. We spent £18m in 2024/25
on planned maintenance, upgrading
kitchens, bathrooms and improving the fabric
of our properties. This represents a 12.5%
increase in lifecycle spending compared
to last year. We also continue to invest in
new technologies and retrofitting projects
designed to improve the energy efficiency
of our homes and reduce costs for our
tenants. Our performance on health and
safety compliance remains a day and daily
preoccupation for Choice staff.
We are grateful to our colleagues in Choice
Services for their diligence and expertise
in responding to a range of tenant repair
requests. We would also like to thank the
wide range of external service partners who
ensure that tenant expectations are met.
Over 94% of our repairs were completed
on time with overall tenant satisfaction
levels at 84% at year-end, an increase on
the corresponding figures at 31st March
2024. Choice Services have also assumed
more responsibility for managing planned
maintenance projects, a strategic imperative
for our subsidiary going forward.
We want our communities to prosper and to
thrive and this is reflected in the great work
of our housing management and property
service colleagues. Our financial inclusion
team generated over £9m of financial gain
for tenants over the course of the year, a
28% increase on the comparable figure
