Longhurst Group has published its Annual Report and Financial statements for 2020/21, showing a surplus of £8.48m.

That is as well as an overall operating margin of 24.8%.

While progress on many of its development schemes was disrupted by events of the last year, the Group invested £71m in its development programme to complete a total of 340 new homes and start work on a further 549 in the year.

Its performance over the last 12 months means that the Group remains on course to achieve its target of building a further 3,750 homes – across a range of tenures – over the next five years.

As well as the key financial statistics and data that underpinned this performance, the latest report details how the Group committed £1.2m worth of funding to its communities and supported more than 3,600 customers to improve their health, wellbeing or economic resilience over the last 12 months.

Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer, Rob Griffiths said: “The past year has undoubtedly presented a number of different financial challenges that we wouldn’t have envisaged less than 18 months ago.

“Against that backdrop, we’re very pleased to report another strong set of results for 2020/21, with performance in many areas in line, and in some cases better than budget.

“This report is testament to the fact that we remain financially strong and that, despite the challenges of the last 12 months, we haven’t stood still and have continued to invest in our existing homes and the provision of much-needed new affordable homes.

“Whilst we’re expecting that Coronavirus will continue to impact some parts of our business during the year ahead, we’re looking to the future with confidence and aiming to build on this strong performance, enabling us to do even more for our customers and communities.”