Yorkshire Housing (YH) is a Registered Provider with more than 16,700 affordable and social rent homes located in more than 20 local authority areas in Yorkshire, with plans to build 8,000 homes by 2030.
The initial project was for DTP to review the current Brixx Model and to provide advice and support on any changes which may be required. Following this, we were asked to support the client in the development of the updated business plan financial model and then we were asked to ‘stress test’ the plan.
Working with the interim finance director, the head of finance and the finance team, we reviewed the original Brixx business plan and we produced recommendations for changes we considered could help in simplifying the modelling going forward.
Following the review, we worked alongside the team to develop an updated plan that was suitable for the Financial Forecast Return (FFR). This was done over a two-stage process of updates and there was a board meeting in July to approve the update based around the review. A further update was implemented prior to the FFR submission, based on the final accounts for the previous year as the starting point, as well as also using other budget and development programme updates.
We were asked to assist with the stress testing of the FFR business plan, in readiness for the board meeting. Taking account of current issues around Brexit and Covid-19, we provided constructive challenge and benchmarking information to help YH develop its stress testing scenarios. Once these were agreed, we ran all the stress tests required to cover the above, linking these also with the risk register and producing relevant output tables along with graphs.
YH has been able to pass the latest plan through the board and to finalise the FFR in the National Register of Social Housing for the regulator.
Rob Parkes, Head of Finance