COVID 19 has caused significant concerns for HSCHT and our Business Plan moving forward. Given the nature of our sector, we have historically had to provide many enabling services “at risk” to generate confidence and to demonstrate project viability to our partners and communities. Before we can access fees for our services, significant investments of staff time are required, to work on Researching and Developing, innovative solutions. We must continue this work in order to confidently deliver projects and to help the economy.
We are nearing the end of some key income generating projects and the current delay in project delivery will also impact our income for services and fee generation potential. Therefore, we need to manage our existing funding streams carefully into the longer term to reduce the likelihood of redundancies. Whilst there is high demand for our work, especially around innovation and delivering challenging projects, we will need to reduce risk to the organisation. This would result in us being selective about the work we can deliver, focusing on only carrying out fee-earning work. This will be detrimental to our reputation, will weaken our unique selling point and will ultimately reduce the number of projects delivered.
Whilst our current financial status looks relatively positive we are clear that a reduction in our facilitation services due to the impact of COVID 19, is a significant threat to our longer term future. If no financial assistance is available to protect us from these external forces, it will have a significant negative affect. We foresee a reduction on next years’ cash-flow and fee-earning work, detrimentally affecting our future. The wider economy will suffer, through less projects progressing and by taking a pro-active approach, financial security at this crucial stage, will prevent a reduction in our capacity.
From the information provided you’ll note that recently we’ve had several large one-off cash injections and house sales but moving forward these will be reducing. Added to that, the impact of delays in construction projects has slowed our agency fee income. Further information is available on request from our Financial Manager.
HSCHT have not furloughed any staff or had any financial COVID 19 assistance to date. We now need to concentrate on live projects to ensure they are completed within timescales, which will be challenging given enforced project delays. This will also mean less resources for our essential early stage interventions that create new projects. Many staff are struggling with working at home and need further resources to assist them with this transition.
Over 22 years, HSCHT have established a strong track record of delivery which demonstrates our socio-economic importance of being pivotal to local, regional and National projects across Northern Scotland, the central belt and the islands. We are currently facilitating, enabling and managing the delivery of circa 300 house build projects, which equates to around £54 million of work in the Scottish economy, with 100’s more builds planned on behalf of communities and others.
Our team of 15 staff, based in offices in Inverness, Perth and Oban work independently, but closely with, the Scottish Government and Local Authorities to provide professional and practical support for communities and partner organisations, to deliver innovative and essential projects. Our focus is predominantly based on affordable housing, but often includes market housing options and commercial developments. Annually, we facilitate tens of millions of pounds worth of work through the construction sector and its associated supply chain.
It is evident that uncertainty in the housing market and the closure of construction sites will have a negative impact on all developers. As a developer of affordable housing, we will also be affected by these factors, albeit it is not clear at this time to what extent, as the Scottish Government schemes we are reliant on (RIHF and SLF) are both due to end in March 2021. Our current cash-flow allows us to deliver a possibly slightly-reduced version of our current Business Plan, post lockdown. However, it may be the case that we are forced to reduce our capacity if we cannot be supported to take forward our preferred route; which is to accelerate anticipated project delivery; support rural economies; support the construction sector; and in turn, increase our market share and offer greater stability.
Funding from PERF will offer confidence and stability to our charity and help to deliver:
edit.
We are nearing the end of some key income generating projects and the current delay in project delivery will also impact our income for services and fee generation potential. Therefore, we need to manage our existing funding streams carefully into the longer term to reduce the likelihood of redundancies. Whilst there is high demand for our work, especially around innovation and delivering challenging projects, we will need to reduce risk to the organisation. This would result in us being selective about the work we can deliver, focusing on only carrying out fee-earning work. This will be detrimental to our reputation, will weaken our unique selling point and will ultimately reduce the number of projects delivered.
Whilst our current financial status looks relatively positive we are clear that a reduction in our facilitation services due to the impact of COVID 19, is a significant threat to our longer term future. If no financial assistance is available to protect us from these external forces, it will have a significant negative affect. We foresee a reduction on next years’ cash-flow and fee-earning work, detrimentally affecting our future. The wider economy will suffer, through less projects progressing and by taking a pro-active approach, financial security at this crucial stage, will prevent a reduction in our capacity.
From the information provided you’ll note that recently we’ve had several large one-off cash injections and house sales but moving forward these will be reducing. Added to that, the impact of delays in construction projects has slowed our agency fee income. Further information is available on request from our Financial Manager.
HSCHT have not furloughed any staff or had any financial COVID 19 assistance to date. We now need to concentrate on live projects to ensure they are completed within timescales, which will be challenging given enforced project delays. This will also mean less resources for our essential early stage interventions that create new projects. Many staff are struggling with working at home and need further resources to assist them with this transition.
Over 22 years, HSCHT have established a strong track record of delivery which demonstrates our socio-economic importance of being pivotal to local, regional and National projects across Northern Scotland, the central belt and the islands. We are currently facilitating, enabling and managing the delivery of circa 300 house build projects, which equates to around £54 million of work in the Scottish economy, with 100’s more builds planned on behalf of communities and others.
Our team of 15 staff, based in offices in Inverness, Perth and Oban work independently, but closely with, the Scottish Government and Local Authorities to provide professional and practical support for communities and partner organisations, to deliver innovative and essential projects. Our focus is predominantly based on affordable housing, but often includes market housing options and commercial developments. Annually, we facilitate tens of millions of pounds worth of work through the construction sector and its associated supply chain.
It is evident that uncertainty in the housing market and the closure of construction sites will have a negative impact on all developers. As a developer of affordable housing, we will also be affected by these factors, albeit it is not clear at this time to what extent, as the Scottish Government schemes we are reliant on (RIHF and SLF) are both due to end in March 2021. Our current cash-flow allows us to deliver a possibly slightly-reduced version of our current Business Plan, post lockdown. However, it may be the case that we are forced to reduce our capacity if we cannot be supported to take forward our preferred route; which is to accelerate anticipated project delivery; support rural economies; support the construction sector; and in turn, increase our market share and offer greater stability.
Funding from PERF will offer confidence and stability to our charity and help to deliver:
- An increased momentum for construction projects to aid recovery from lockdown
- Support the recovery of the construction sector and its supply chain by ensuring there remains a steady stream of planned projects
- Research and development of new housing tenures and finance models
- Offer solutions to challenges in the housing market e.g. Rent to Buy scheme
- Retain our team of 15 staff – without the need for reduced hours or redundancies
- Utilise consultant support to accelerate projects where required
- Offer direct support to those in housing need – by providing housing to rent and discounted housing to buy
- Support rural and fragile communities, that may have been highly dependent on tourism, by continuing to deliver our programme of work
- Provide housing solutions for fragile businesses struggling to house employees
- Provide key worker housing for essential service providers such as NHS and education etc
- Support the self-build sector to recover by creating plots and finance opportunities
- Continue to expand on the momentum in the Community-led Housing sector in Scotland
- Deliver projects that would be unlikely to go ahead if HSCHT did not champion them
- Collaborate with strategic partners to strive for the best value for public funds in relation to affordable housing projects
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