Annual Financial Report

Orbit Capital PLC

16 September 2026

 

ORBIT CAPITAL PLC

16 September 2026

Orbit maintains strong performance for the year ending 31 March 2026

Publication of Financial Statements

Orbit Capital PLC ('Orbit Group, 'Orbit' or the 'Company'), one of the UK's largest providers of affordable housing, has announced its financial results for the year ended 31 March 2026.

 Highlights

·     A strong set of results with group turnover increased to £420 million (FY2025: £408 million), driven by increased rent and homes brought into management 

·     Operating surplus of £106 million (FY2025: £105 million), strengthening capacity to invest in improving homes and customer experience

·     Operating margin excluding fixed asset sales increased to 22.2% reflecting our firm focus on improving existing homes and balancing external cost pressures (FY2025: 19.7%)

·     Reaffirmed A3 stable credit rating by Moody's

·     Reaffirmed G1/V2 rating by the Regulator of Social Housing

·     Revenue reserves increased to £1,053 million (FY2025: £1,008 million) providing us with the ongoing financial strength to deliver our 2030 Strategy

·     £142 million invested in maintaining and improving our existing homes (FY2025: £149 million)

Financial Highlights

We have retained a strong financial position, with turnover higher year-on-year at £420 million. Property sales turnover remained broadly consistent at £99 million, primarily driven by a resilient shared ownership market.

We built 1,094 new homes, 92% of which were affordable, to support the UK's broader housing need, and invested £142 million in maintaining and improving our existing homes, against a backdrop of ongoing external economic challenge.

Our operating costs reduced marginally compared to prior year, but our operating environment remained challenging, with increased repair volumes and costs as we stayed true to our commitment to invest in our homes and put customer needs first. Our capital maintenance programme delivered £83 million of new investment, contributing to a £223 million increase to £3,572 million tangible fixed assets.

We also continued to invest in services that support customers in managing their tenancies and finances, alongside targeted value for money initiatives, in line with our social purpose.

Our liquidity position remained strong, with £476 million available at year end, inclusive of £79 million cash, providing greater than 36 months liquidity coverage. During the year, we secured £75 million of new bank funding, extended the tenor of £120 million of existing facilities, and agreed one-year extensions to £300 million of revolving credit facilities.

We also published the particulars for our £1 billion Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) programme as part of our funding strategy. Aligned to our Sustainable Finance Framework, the programme supports our ability to fund both the delivery of new homes and investment in existing homes, helping us improve outcomes for customers.

Total reserves increased by £46 million to £1,074 million providing us with the ongoing financial strength to deliver our ambitious 2030 Strategy.

Strategic Progress

We made good progress in the delivery of our 2030 Strategy and Everyday Excellence transformation programme, working to meet our ambition to provide amongst the best customer experience of any housing association in the country, whilst continuing to provide safe, sustainable and affordable homes.

Key strategic developments include:

·     Continued rollout of our Everyday Excellence transformation programme including the launch of a new neighbourhood-based operating model to strengthen local customer support, and the introduction of the first phase of iProperty Cloud (iPC), a new customer relationship management platform, to offer a more joined up experience for customers

·     Increasing our build and regeneration commitment to 7,000 homes by 2030 to support in tackling the UK's housing crisis

·     Sector-leading increase in Customer Satisfaction - 70.5% (Tenant Satisfaction Measures for customers living in Low-Cost Rental Accommodation (TSM LCRA)), 5% increase from FY2025 65.6%

·     Embedding our Common Board structure, enhancing Group-wide oversight, customer influence, accountability and decision-making

·     Achieving our previous £100 million social value target during the calendar year of 2025 and adoption of a new target of £550 million by 2030

Other Achievements:

·     Delivery of 10,034 customer support interventions through our Better Days programme though £2.8 million investment

·     £21.1 million of Social Value delivered in addition to the day-to-day social-focused services we provide to our customers

·     Awarded HBF 5-Star Housebuilder status for the third consecutive year

·     Awarded In-house Research 2026 Gold Award for Customer Satisfaction and achieved 83 Net Promoter Score for Orbit Homes

·     89.5% of our homes are now at EPC band C or above

·     42% reduction in carbon footprint since 2018/19 baseline

·     Ongoing excellence in Risk and Compliance, and Health and Safety, securing the RoSPA Gold Award for the eighth consecutive year

·     73% colleague engagement score, with 74% proud to work for Orbit

·     Introduced our Professional Development Framework for colleagues

Commenting on the results Jonathan Wallbank, Group Finance Director, said:

"These results reflect our ongoing commitment to maintaining a financially strong and sustainable organisation while delivering value for money for customers.

"Despite a challenging operating environment, we've maintained a robust financial position, increased our reserves, and maintained robust liquidity. This provides the capacity and confidence to continue investing in existing and new homes, our services and our communities as we deliver our 2030 Strategy."

Phil Andrew, Orbit Group Chief Executive added:

"It has been a strong year both from a customer excellence and financial perspective, and we've continued our positive trajectory towards our 2030 ambition. We've kept a firm focus on reshaping how we work and embedding an ethos of operational excellence and continuous improvement, to further strengthen our position as a leading social landlord.

"We've made important changes via our Everyday Excellence transformation programme, including a new neighbourhood-based model and rolling out new technology to enhance how we manage customer information, so we're able to understand and serve everyone who lives in our homes even better.

"We've also reaffirmed our responsibility to helping tackle the UK's housing crisis, increasing our build and regeneration commitment to 7,000 homes by 2030, delivering 1,094 new homes this year. We've also invested £142 million in our existing homes, and upheld our focus on sustainability, and compliance and safety.

"We're progressing well against what we set out to achieve and importantly, are seeing strong improvements in our customer satisfaction. We recognise that we're only halfway through our transformation journey but are committed to maintaining our focus and pace to ensure we stay true to our course in achieving our ambition to offer amongst the best customer experience of any housing association in the country."

Ends

For further information or to arrange a meeting, please contact:

Anthony Homan

Finance Director

Garden Court

Harry Weston Road

Binley Business Park

Coventry CV3 2SU

Email: [e-mail] / [e-mail]

Telephone: [phone]

 

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