Our future

The Group's business plan sets out our priorities for the coming years, and projects to the next 30 years.

This gives the regulator and our lenders confidence in the long term viability of the business. The plan is reviewed annually to reflect the ongoing development of the corporate strategy and reflects several key factors. These are:

• The annual 1% reduction in social rents imposed by the amended rent settlement
• The potential impacts of the increased scope of Right to Buy
• The Government policy shift in focus toward home ownership
• Our view of future land and construction costs
• Our ambitions to continue to provide more homes for new customers
• Our commitment to paying the living wage
• Updates to inflation forecasts over the period
• The impact of transforming the way we provide services to our customers
• Increased investment in IT to cover the requirements of the above and to improve internal processes

The Group believes it has the underlying financial stability to continue its strategy to continue to grow and to deliver excellent customer service. Delivering a programme of cost savings as part of the overall business transformation can mitigate some of the effects of these factors. Ultimately, the business plan shows the Group to be in good financial health with capacity to make strategic decisions to ensure it maintains its position as a developer of mixed-tenure housing.

Our decisions and priorities over the coming few years are driven by our Corporate Strategy.