The past year at Coastal has been affected by the prevailing economic conditions and in particular a focus on supporting residents and communities through the continuing cost of living crisis. Energy costs impacted by the war in Ukraine and the resulting effects on inflation have brought about significant financial challenges for both residential and commercial residents, as well as for Coastal itself.
We have continued to see huge demand for our services, driven by rising costs in the private rental market, as well as by landlords exiting the market due to factors such as higher interest rates.
Housing supply remains a critical issue for people in Wales and we have refocused efforts on increasing the number of homes we have available, across a range of tenures and locations, through investment into the staffing and strategic direction of our development function.
Following our first external environmental audit by SHIFT in 2021, we continued to deliver against our sustainability targets this past year by implementing more recommendations and publishing our first sustainability strategy: ‘All Possible Action’.
Coastal’s financial performance has remained strong and is illustrative of a well-managed, fair, and responsive organisation committed to genuine affordability of its services.
Availability, quality and affordability of homes are all huge challenges for people in the areas where we work. As a community landlord with an excellent reputation and local presence, we are seeing unprecedented demand for every property we advertise and massive growth in subscribers to our website property alerts. Nearly 7,000 people have asked to be notified whenever new properties become available and this number is growing by around 300 people every month.
Building on increased tenancy support activity put in place in the early days of the pandemic, Coastal continued to provide advice, support and signposting to residents over the past year. We continued to share resources on our website and social media platforms as a supplement to in-person support by our housing, customer service, home adaptations and extra-care teams, who have provided personalised advice and signposting based on individual circumstances.
Each year we undertake rigorous rent and service charge-setting exercises that take into account overall affordability of housing, relevant market rates and input from residents and board. For the coming year, our overall rent increase was below the Welsh Government cap of 6.5% and well below cost inflation. On average, the cost of renting a home from Coastal increased by £6.06 per week. Rent is Coastal’s primary income stream and pays for the buildings and services we provide, as well as our ability to develop more homes to meet rising demand.
Service charges reflect our actual costs of providing services to residents; we have always been transparent about them and the impact they have on the overall cost of housing. Elements like communal heating, lighting and lift facilities are obviously affected by energy price rises and so, in some locations, such increases this past year were high. For elements such as caretaker services where Coastal has some control over how costs accumulate, we have looked to introduce changes to reduce costs whilst maintaining levels of service: for example, by reducing the number of vehicles used by caretakers, sharing vans to decrease fleet and fuel costs, and deploying staff differently.
Ahead of the introduction of the Renting Homes Wales Act, a significant exercise was undertaken by our housing team to standardise legacy tenancy agreements. As an organisation with over 30 years’ experience of renting homes and a portfolio of around 6,000 properties, this was no small undertaking. However, it offered significant benefits for residents in retaining advantageous terms, as well as for Coastal’s planning in respect of the change to occupation contracts. Engagement with residents through a direct mail exercise, supplemented by website and social media promotion, delivered a strong response in the first phase of the exercise, allowing best use to be made of a Coastal ‘day of action’ later in the year, in which staff from across Coastal were paired up to target outstanding respondents by area.
Last year we reported on our successful bid for the transfer of 96 homes operated by Wales & West Housing in the popular Caswell and Dunvant areas of Swansea. Following the announcement of Coastal as the winning bid in February 2022, both organisations worked through the transfer process in consultation with residents during the spring and summer, allowing the transfer to complete in September 2022. We are delighted to have made this significant addition to our stock in locations where we already operate. Residents of these properties will now benefit from our local presence and the high standards provided by our repairs, maintenance, and estates teams, whilst contributing a fair and competitive charge for these services.
Following the completion of significant fire safety works at two of our locations in Urban Village, we invited residents to present their experiences to us and held a follow-up meeting where all residents were invited to discuss responses to the questions that had been asked. This was a complex remediation project that included reducing residents' access to balconies, further exacerbated by the pandemic lockdown and some unseasonably warm weather. There were valuable insights for us and the main contractor in contract and project management, resident engagement and communication. While we were active in managing a difficult situation, this was undoubtedly a challenging time for many residents. One of the assurances residents wanted was that this exercise would inform and improve how we approach future remediation works and it has definitely shaped future fire safety upgrade works we have planned for the coming financial year, with over £5M of funding for these coming from Welsh Government’s Medium and High Rise Residential Building Fire Safety Capital Grant (MHRRB)
Complaints about damp and mould in social housing doubled in England over the past two years according to the housing ombudsman. We have seen rises in resident contact on these issues too, particularly following the publicity surrounding the tragic death of Awaab Ishaak in Rochdale and as colder, wetter weather arrived in the latter part of 2022. We encourage residents to report all instances of damp, and we know that condensation is often a significant contributing factor in many of the reports we investigate. We have produced new resources for residents this past year that clearly explain effective actions that both residents and Coastal can take to control and manage condensation, damp and mould. We’ve adapted our data capturing and reporting on cases of damp, mould and condensation with a particular emphasis on identifying any additional household factors – such as health vulnerabilities, financial difficulties or language barriers.
Updated advice about how to report and manage damp and mould was just one topic included in an updated resident welcome pack produced during the year. This brought together key information in one simple, well-designed document, that relies more on signposting to digital information and will now be updated on an annual basis.
At Coastal we’re proud to have continued to deliver new housing this past year despite some of the most challenging circumstances the sector has faced in recent times.
A refinancing exercise completed in early 2020 when interest rates were very low, ensured a strong position for Coastal despite rates rising sharply in the financial year 2022/23. In addition to funding ongoing development works and strategic acquisitions, the availability of low-rate finance meant we were able to join forces with Welsh Government to support some contractors hit by large increases in materials and labour costs.
Despite support, economic conditions proved too difficult for one of our contractors this past year and they entered administration in November 2022. We acted quickly to shore up the two affected Coastal developments in Pennard and Llandarcy respectively, providing reassurance to anyone affected and minimising delays.
Coastal has particular expertise in city and town centre regeneration, perhaps best illustrated by our work in Swansea High Street. Regeneration is a long-term endeavour and we were delighted to make two strategic acquisitions in High Street during early 2023 that will support future phases of our redevelopment work in the area. The King’s Arms is one of the oldest buildings on High Street; the old medieval town walls and northern gate used to run right along the lane found next to the listed tavern. Following the successful demolition of 226 High Street during summer 2022, we were delighted to acquire the adjacent building at 225 in early 2023. Our interest in this building stems back to the very start of our regeneration work in this part of the city and its acquisition means later phases of our Urban Village project can be bigger in scale and ambition.
The Welsh Government’s Transitional Accommodation Capital Programme (TACP) was created in July 2022 to help create much-needed extra housing capacity across Wales. The programme was particularly focused on providing permanent homes for the 10,000+ people living in temporary accommodation in Wales. At Coastal we engaged fully with the grant programme during 2022/23, using funds to acquire 26 new build or existing homes that can provide immediate accommodation. The programme is also part-funding a planned redevelopment of Porthcawl Hotel to provide 17 new homes in the centre of the town.
Pennant Homes is a subsidiary of Coastal that develops and sells homes on the open market, offering affordable ownership schemes as an alternative to renting. The past year has seen us complete sales activities at our popular Colman Vale and Hedgerows developments in Pen y Fai and Pennard respectively. Profits from Pennant Homes' sales activity is reinvested into providing affordable homes for rent.
Sustainability remains a key commitment for Coastal and we have put considerable efforts into implementing the recommendations of our first external environmental audit over the past 12 months. This resulted in an improved ranking from SHIFT Environmental for our second submission, taking Coastal from Silver to Gold status. Whilst this recognition of our achievement to date was welcome, we know there is still a lot of work to do to reach our environmental ambitions.
Alongside the rollout of accredited carbon literacy training to staff, another key achievement in the year was the development and publication of our new sustainability strategy - ‘All Possible Action’ - developed with staff from across the organisation. Published in Autumn 2022, it sets out in clear, unambiguous language, the steps Coastal will take across its operations towards the aim of taking all possible action to manage the climate crisis and ensure the wellbeing and existence of future generations. The strategy places collective responsibility on everyone at Coastal to ensure we are not only working in ways that limit our impact on the environment but actively taking steps to make sustainable choices, improve biodiversity and engage others in change.
Over the past year we have had a keener focus on equality, diversity and inclusion at Coastal and particularly how we can use Coastal’s position and privilege to best effect. An LGBT+ staff network was formed in June 2022 and this has quickly established itself as an active community, organising events, raising awareness and encouraging a wider participation for Coastal with local LGBT+ and Pride initiatives.
Coastal has supported Race Council Cymru’s Black History Wales programme as a sponsor for some years but has been keen to find additional ways of promoting equality, diversity and inclusion in the communities where we work. We were delighted to work with two local artists of colour for an installation in King’s Lane, adjacent to the Coastal offices, in celebration of black British artists for Black History Month. Arts and culture is central to how Coastal undertakes regeneration activity and we’re therefore well-positioned to provide this platform for representation.