Victory spends over £25 million on homes in year

North Norfolk’s biggest affordable housing provider spent over £25 million on building new homes, and improving and maintaining its existing stock last year – accounting for more than 80 per cent of its budget.

Victory Housing Trust has published a comprehensive review of what it did in the 12 months to March 2014, in a continuing bid to be transparent about how it spends its money.

81 per cent of Victory’s £31 million budget went towards building, improving and maintaining homes and the associated funding costs, with 12 per cent spent on the management of those homes.  Four per cent of its budget – around £1.25 million – was spent on providing other services to residents, with just three per cent going on other costs mostly related to building homes for shared ownership.

The year was one of the most productive in the housing association’s history, with a record 171 new homes completed during the 12 months, as well as 250 kitchen upgrades, 203 bathroom upgrades, and 108 central heating upgrades.

The Victory report shows that 386 properties were let by Victory during the year, with a further 68 mutual exchanges taking place.

Other findings included:

• Victory distributed more than £165,000 in grants to 23 local community organisations
• The Trust’s Tenancy Support Team supported more than 1,000 households and secured more than £300,000 of additional income and benefits for residents
• Victory’s Customer Service Team answered more than 52,000 calls, in an average of 14 seconds.

“We publish these figures because we have a commitment to being open and transparent about how we spend our money,” said Victory chief executive John Archibald.  “We have made a concerted effort to improve our efficiency and ensure that as much money as possible is spent on our front-line activities.  These figures show that we are performing well against that objective.

“Our investment locally benefits residents, provides new homes for those on the housing register, provides local employment and supports local charities – collectively having a huge impact on the wider community,” said Mr Archibald.  “We are responsible for around one in ten homes in the north of Norfolk so it is important that we publish these figures, so that everyone can see for themselves what we have been up to, and how we are performing.”